New Delhi: The 2G telephony spectrum allocation issue created uproar in Parliament today in the wake of reports that a high profile public relation lobbyist acted as a power broker and  was in regular touch with Telecom Minister A Raja.
 The Lok Sabha also witnessed noisy scenes over BJP's breach of privilege notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for announcing outside Parliament the rejection of the demand for setting up JPC in the IPL and phone tapping issues.
 In the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley sought  to know from the government whether some corporate lobbyists were influencing distribution of portfolios of ministers and whether the 2G spectrum allocation was guided by these forces. "We need the government's response on these two issues," he said.
 The government had issued new telecom licenses in January 2008 along with bundled 4.4 MHz spectrum for Rs 1,658 crore. The opposition has been saying that the licenses have been given at 2001 prices and caused huge loss to the government.
 CBI is also investigating alleged irregularities in the spectrum allocation and had registered a case against some unknown officials of the Department of Telecom (DoT) for their involvement.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST