Parliament session: AIADMK to raise spectrum, Mullaperiyar dam issues

Chennai, Nov 18 : Tamil Nadu's major opposition party AIADMK plans to put the central ministers belonging to the ruling DMK on the mat by mainly raising issues handled by them during the winter session of parliament that begins Thursday, a party MP said Wednesday.

"We will be raising the issues like Mullaperiyar dam, spectrum scandal, increase in the prices of essential commodities and also the centre's new sugarcane pricing policy," the AIADMK MP told IANS Wednesdy, requesting anonymity.

According to him, the party will raise the issues whether or not other opposition parties in parliament support it.

As a prelude to the party's winter session agenda, AIADMK General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa Wednesday wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to drop communications Minister A.Raja from his cabinet.

Citing various official communications from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the telecom ministry and others on the telecom spectrum issue published in the media, Jayalalithaa said: "The interests of justice will not be served if at this stage Mr. Raja continues to preside over the telecom ministry."

"These documents clearly indicate that the law minister had reservations about the first-come-first-served policy for spectrum allocation advocated by Mr. Raja. They also indicate that the prime minister himself was unhappy about the process and advised caution and transparency," the letter said.

"Further, the TRAI had also suggested that the policy be abandoned and the more appropriate system of auctions be adopted. Yet Mr Raja had gone ahead with a first-come-first-served sale of spectrum licences," it added.

Jayalalithaa also urged the government that shareholders of controversial companies like Swan and Unitech should be interrogated.

"The truth behind Tiger Holdings, Peacock, Genex Exim and other mysterious hands behind these 'letter pad' organisations have to be made public," she maintained.

Sometime back Jayalalithaa had raised the issue of the central government encroaching the state government's territory in respect of fixing the procurement price of sugarcane.

She was also very critical about the Tamil Nadu government's handling of the Mullaperiyar dam row with Kerala.

The Supreme Court recently transferred the Mullaperiyar dam case to a five-member constitution bench after hearing it since 2006.