Manmohan Singh meets Cabinet Ministers to find solution to 2G scam mess

New Delhi, Feb.11 (ANI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is holding meetings with key Cabinet Ministers Kapil Sibal, Salman Khursheed, Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram to find a way out of the 2G telecom license mess.

The meeting is taking place at the Prime Minister's official 7 Race Course Road residence, and it is expected that participants will be reviewing the rules and guidelines to be applied for the future auction of 2G spectrum.

They are likely to decide whether to cancel licences issued in 2008 under the NDA rule and what should be the new policy towards spectrum sale, and whether a new law needs to be framed.

They will also discuss the fallout of 122 2G licences cancelled by the Supreme Court earlier this month and take a decision on whether to move a leave petition on the recent Supreme Court order, which calls for mandatory prosecution of erring ministers and bureaucrats within four months.

Saturday's meeting comes days after Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairperson and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi had said that the Supreme Court verdict to quash 2G spectrum allocation to 122 companies was a virtual endorsement of the draft report of PAC headed by him and a vindication of his stand.

It also comes in the wake of a Delhi trial court dismissing a petition filled by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy that sought to make Union Home Minister P Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G spectrum scam case.

While Swamy expressed surprise over the trial court order, the Congress and its leaders said that he and the BJP needed to apologise for attempting to make Chidambaram an accessory in the 2G scam. (ANI)