DMK deputy floor leader Durai Murugan on Monday confronted Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam in the Assembly with a CAG report and claimed that funds, originally allotted to various schemes last year, were unused and surrendered.
During a debate in the House, Mr. Panneerselvam sought specific details of the projects and urged him not to make general statements. “The government is ready to give explanation, if specific projects are cited,” he said.
Speaker P. Dhanapal too urged the DMK leader to give specific details. When Mr. Durai Murugan read out parts from the CAG report and referred to certain schemes, which included Central government schemes, the Chief Minister said it did not mean that the funds could not be used in the following fiscal and asked whether the DMK in its earlier regimes had not surrendered funds even once.
Defending his point, Mr. Durai Murugan said there was a difference between capital expenditure and revenue expenditure and that surrender of funds from capital expenditure was acceptable as some projects might be stalled in court cases. “But the Central government funds cannot be diverted to other projects,” he said.
When the Speaker intervened to say that documents referred to during debate have to be cleared by him before the day’s proceedings, Mr. Durai Murugan said, “This [CAG report] is the property of the House.”
After persisted attempts by the DMK leader, the Chief Minister said all answers for queries raised by him would be made during his reply to discussions on the budget.
The Chief Minister, however, managed to avert a similar attempt by CPI (M) member K. Balakrishnan to corner the government.
