Raja Scam, Country lost Rs 22,000 crore – CAG report

BJP seeks action against Raja
By PTI

NEW DELHI: BJP today made a fresh demand for sacking of Telecom Minister A Raja and legal action against him over the 2G Spectrum allocation scam, citing a CAG report that the country may have lost Rs 22,000 crore in the deal.

“As per conservative estimates of CAG in its audit report, the country could have lost upto Rs 22,000 crore…We demand that the Prime Minister immediately sack Raja and initiate action against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act for criminal conspiracy,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The BJP MP maintained that the Prime Minister, in his recent press conference, had held that if the CBI finds that any irregularity had been committed by Raja or anybody else in 2G Spectrum allocation, action would be taken.

“The Prime Minister had taken a stand for probity in public life. This is subject to test now,” Prasad said.

The main opposition claimed that the Telecom Ministry under Raja had arbitrarily changed the tender submission cut-off date.”The 2G Spectrum tender cut-off date was October 1, 2007.

This was preponed on back-date to September 25, 2007 and more than 300 applicants were disqualified,” Prasad alleged.

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