Par panel raps minority affairs ministry for delaying Haj

A parliamentary panel today rapped the Ministry of Minority Affairs for delaying the laying of audited accounts of Haj Committee in the House by upto 14 months.
The panel asked the ministry to be "careful in future" to avoid such delays.
The 'Committee on Papers Laid on the Table' noted that audited accounts for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 were laid in the House with delays ranging from three-and-half to 14 months.
The audited accounts of the Haj Committee of India (HCOI) are required to be laid within nine months of the closure of the respective accounting year.
The committee also discarded the argument that the delay in laying the accounts of 2014-15 was due to transfer of HCOI from the Ministry of External Affairs to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, with effect from October 1, 2016.

The committee noted that the document of 2014-15 was required to be laid before December 31, 2105, i.e within nine months of the close of accounting year.
"The committee impress upon the ministry to be careful in future to avoid such delays. If for any reasons, it is not possible to lay the annual reports and audited accounts of the Institutes on the Table of the House within the stipulated time, a statement explaining the reasons as to why the requisite documents could not be laid within prescribed period should be strictly submitted within 30 days," the panel added.