JPC accuses PAC of exceeding its brief in 2G probe

NEW DELHI: Bringing the territorial conflict almost to a flashpoint, the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2G scam has accused the Murli Manohar Joshi-headed Public Accounts Committee of Parliament of exceeding its brief and encroaching upon its turf by going beyond scrutinizing the CAG report.

"It is, therefore, the firm view of the whole JPC that PAC should confine its examination to the CAG report and refrain from venturing into wider issues relating to the subject matter," said a note circulated by the parliamentary panel among its members.
If the document's tone and tenor is anything to go by, the JPC headed by Congress MP P C Chacko is all set to wage a feisty turf war with the PAC which has acquired an unusually high profile because of Joshi's determination to go into different aspects of the irregularities in the allocation of the 2G spectrum. In a direct attack on Joshi, the JPC note said, "The argument of the [PAC] chairman that it is a constitutional body is not tenable."