New Delhi: BJP on Tuesday said Murli Manohar
Joshi will continue as Chairman of Parliament`s Public
Accounts Committee for 2011-12, currently looking into
anomalies in the 2G spectrum scam, as he is doing a "good
job".
Senior party leader Yashwant Sinha has not been
nominated to the PAC for the second year as he is part of JPC
on the 2-G spectrum allocation scam.
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj
said the party has decided to continue with Joshi as PAC
chairperson after his current term expires on April 30. The
PAC chairperson`s post is reserved for the main opposition.
BJP has nominated Sripad Naik and Ananth Kumar Hegde
for the other two seats it has in PAC from Lok Sabha. Naik and
Hegde replace Sinha and Raman Deka who were BJP members in the
outgoing PAC. BJP has given the 4th seat from its share in Lok
Sabha to Shiv Sena.
Swaraj said the decision to bring in new faces in the
PAC, other than Joshi, was to give an opportunity to more MPs
to serve in different panels.
"Yashwant Sinha and Munde are also members of the JPC
on 2-G Spectrum scam. Sinha is chairman of Standing Committee
on Finance while Munde will continue to head the Standing
Committee on Chemicals and fertilisers. He is also Deputy
Leader of the party in Lok Sabha," Swaraj said.
Of the two seats BJP has in PAC from the Rajya Sabha,
Prakash Javadekar has been nominated for one while the party
has given the other seat to ally Shiv Sena. The main
opposition had given the second seat last year to Shiromani
Akali Dal which had nominated Naresh Gujral for the post.
Javadekar will replace Kalraj Mishra in the PAC who is
head of the Committee on Subordinate Legislation. Mishra has
also been made in-charge of Uttar Pradesh which goes to polls
next year.
Joshi had taken over as PAC Chairperson on May 1,
2010. Soon after the 2009 elections, Jaswant Singh was BJP`s
choice for PAC Chairperson`s post. But when he was expelled
from the party in August, he resigned from the post in
December.
Gopinath Munde was made chairperson from January 2010
to April 30, 2010 after which Joshi took over.
However, Joshi`s "pro-active" role as PAC Chairperson
on the 2-G spectrum scam was initially not liked by some
senior BJP leaders who felt this was diluting their demand for
a JPC on the issue.
With the JPC clinched, the party now wants Joshi to
continue the "good work" he has been doing. Other than taking
cognizance of the CAG report on 2-G Spectrum allocation which
put the loss to exchequer at Rs 1.76 Lakh Crore, the PAC has
also summoned, among others, the CBI chief and editors of two
magazines.
The BJP Parliamentary Party, which held its weekly
meeting here today, asked its MPs to be present in the House
from March 21 and 25 when the elections for various Standing
Committees will be held.
PTI
