Naresh Kumar Vaid, Director , Vaids ICS

IT is only seldom that a govt. may be happy on the failure of its act or policy. The govt. has a reason to joy as the auction fetched only Rs. 9,407 crore against the expected 40,000 crore in the auction of 2G spectrum held on Nov. 14. Now the govt. can rebuke the CAG and repeat that no scam has taken place. As usual, let me admit that the system is powerful enough to justify its wrong doings, particularly when advocates like Sibals, Manish Tiwaris etc. represent it. But the issue has several points. 1.  CBI, the biggest saviour of UPA has, in Supreme Court admitted to a scam of Rs. 30,000 crore. CAG never claimed the scam of Rs. 1,76,000 crore. It gave several figures ranging from Rs. 50,000 crore to Rs. 1,76,000 crore. 2.  THE auction was planned in a way to discourage new entrants. The auction was for only 1.2MHz while an operator requires at least 10MHz to operate properly.  (THE Supreme Court had already said that whole of spectrum must be auctioned.) The bidder...

NARAYANSAMY, the minister, made the statement yesterday but, after severe criticism from various quarters, backtracked today. However it became certain that the government is mulling on making the CAG a three member Commission. IT raises several questions. It is beyond doubt that the government is not at ease with the present CAG as it has exposed several scams of UPA. But the govt. must understand that the job of CAG is done by IAAS officers and multiplicity of members can not change the facts. On the other hand, it may demoralize the members of IAAS. Besides, ideally, the government must seek approval of CAG before it spends as it is Comptroller first, Auditor next. LOOKING back, Commissioner for Scheduled Castes And Scheduled Tribes was doing a good job in highlighting the weaknesses of the government. From Mr. U.N. Dhebar till the last Commissioner Dr. B.D. Sharma have been very critical about the government and its ways. Fed up with the criticism, the govt. first made a natio...