Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Maharashtra on Wednesday submitted, en masse, their resignation to State assembly Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil, protesting against the apathy of the State government.
PAC chairperson Girish Bapat from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) told The Hindu on the phone that 183 reports of the PAC, on which no action had been taken, were pending with the State government. IAS officers, he said, were neither appearing before the Committee nor replying to reminders regarding irregularities in the government's finances. Three weeks ago, Mr. Bapat wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary about the problems faced by the PAC but there had been neither a reply nor an acknowledgement from him. He said only IAS officers or their Secretaries could appear before the PAC.
‘Challenging the system'
Mr. Bapat has been a member of the PAC for ten years and chairperson for the past one-and-a-half years. “We are protesting the lack of cooperation and coordination between the government and the PAC and our resignations are a challenge to the system,” he said.
“The PAC meets twice a week and it was during the meeting today [Wednesday] that members, 12 of whom were present of the total 25, decided to resign,” said National Congress Party member Nawab Malik. The PAC, Mr. Malik said, was entrusted with the task of reviewing the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), seeking clarifications from the government, and submitting its recommendations, which were tabled in the legislature. He said there were clarifications pending since 2003. “We sent so many reminders to departments and even the chief secretary but no replies were forthcoming,” he said.
Legislators, coming from various far-flung parts of the State for the meetings, found that the government officials had not turned up, Mr. Malik said. “The government is not serious about the PAC and that is the main issue which drove us to resignation.”
He said 350 reports were tabled in the Assembly, of which action-taken reports were pending for over 180. “The IAS officers always make excuses or try delaying tactics, and so the work of the PAC is kept pending,” he said. Asking for some time to sort matters out, Mr. Walse-Patil requested members to take back their resignations. However, Mr. Bapat said the Committee, comprising 25 members, was quite firm on its action.
