PM meets ministers over 2G licences

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday held a crucial meeting with senior ministers to discuss and review the rules that will apply in case of the auction of the 2G spectrum.

The meeting was attended by senior ministers like Pranab Mukherjee, Salman Khurshid, Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram, reports said.

According to reports, Attorney General of India Goolam E Vahanvati was also present at the meeting that lasted for nearly an hour.

The high-level meeting occurred days after the Supreme Court on Feb 2 had ordered all 122 telecoms licences issued under the scandal-tainted 2008 sale be revoked, delivering a decisive blow against a government that has been grappling to leave behind the fiasco that has roiled the nation for more than a year.

The landmark verdict, that sent ripples through business and political establishments in the country for its unprecedented retroactive ambit, was seen as a blow to foreign investor confidence besides turning the heat back on a scam-battered coalition government.

Ex-telecoms minister A Raja, the alleged mastermind of the scam, is now lodged in jail pending trial for selling cellphone spectrum to companies at below-market rates in lieu of kickbacks, in a sale process that could have cost the treasury as much Rs 1.76 lakh crore.