In a development which speaks to the fear of the ruling TMC government of West Bengal, Mukul Roy, who recently joined the Trinamool Congress after winning the Assembly polls from Krishnanagar North on a BJP ticket, was made the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman on the last day of the Budget Session in the West Bengal Assembly on Friday. The TMC has broken precedent and made the House Speaker appoint Mukul Roy to the important post in order to reportedly hide its misappropriation of public funds. Historically, an opposition leader is made the Public Accounts Committee chairman – in order to keep the government in check.
“This is the first time in history that the opposition party has not been given the PAC chairman’s post. The Speaker (Biman Bandhopadhyay) has done this intentionally to hide misappropriation of funds. Had BJP’s Ashok Lahiri been made the PAC chairman, all the misdoings would have come to light,” said Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari.
BJP had been rooting for the Former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, Ashok Lahiri to be appointed as the PAC chairman. Defending the decision of the Speaker, Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy said, “There is no rule which says an opposition leader has to be made the PAC chairman. It is only a convention. The Speaker is the sole authority to select the chairman. He has done the right thing.”
According to Times Now, Roy’s appointment to the post of PAC chairman was decided much earlier when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had openly lent her support to Roy and said that the Speaker’s decision would be final in this matter.
Only recently, after the state budget was tabled in the West Bengal assembly, Ashok Lahiri had sought a list of the schemes, which fall under central, state and concurrent lists and had urged the state government to come out with the list of the beneficiaries of all the schemes. “The state government should come out with the details of the Centre-sponsored schemes which are in force in Bengal,” Lahiri said. He also sought details about the eligibility lists of the candidates in various welfare schemes and said there are more than 47 schemes.
Lahiri also added that the accounts of the state government must be audited by the CAG so as to reflect the real financial picture of the various departments in West Bengal. Due to his stringent approach of getting the state accounts audited, it seems the TMC government got rattled and instead appointed Mukul Roy – a political chameleon as the PAC chairman.