Prez wants House standing panels to look into CAG reports

President Pranab Mukherjee today suggested that departmental standing committees should scrutinise CAG reports which could not be taken up by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) due to paucity of time.
Government take action on the recommendations of the PAC and submit action-taken notes to the Committee.
Inaugurating the 28th Accountants General Conference organised by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mukherjee said a large volume of reports come to Parliament through CAG on all important transactions in the year.
But only a small portion of reports are taken up by PAC "simply because of non availability of time", he said.
"Then what would happen to other transactions which are not chosen by the PAC...One idea I am giving to (Lok Sabha) Speaker (Sumitra Mahajan) she can take it up with the government, Prime Minister and leader of the Houses," he said.

Mukherjee said that Parliament could examine whether rules can be modified to allow department related standing committees scrutinise the CAG reports which had not been examined by the PAC.

"Of course, there will be a necessity for political consensus and if the Speaker takes the lead...I think it may be possible to have some sort of additional accountability apart from the job which is being done by the PAC," the President said.
The function was attended by Lok Sabha Speaker Mahajan, PAC Chairman K V Thomas and CAG Shashi Kant Sharma.
The PAC is constituted by Parliament each year for examination of accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament for expenditure of government, the annual finance accounts, and other accounts laid before Parliament.

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Stating that India's economic growth has been substantial in the last decade and a half, Mukherjee said, "We have achieved 7.6 per cent GDP growth despite the fact that there had been a slow down in the world economy and trade because of adverse impact of financial crisis of 2008 and subsequently lingering euro-zone crisis and its impact."
India's growth is of course not to the level of neighbouring China, which has grown steadily to become the world's second largest economy in terms of absolute income, trade and current account balance, he said.
The arena of economic activity and technology development has shifted from Europe and North America to Africa and Asia, he said.

Emphasising the need of modern technologies in the farm sector, the President said that the country has made great strides since independence with the overall foodgrain production increasing from 50 million tonnes in 1947 to 270 million tonnes this year.
"During the partition period, we were dependent on import of foodgrains. We were in 'Ship to kitchen' situation. I am happy we have overcome that," he said.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore, among others, were present at the event.
Nearly 92 domestic and global players from 13 countries are participating in the 12th edition of the fair, in which Israel is the partner country with Canada and Germany as focus countries and the UK as the guest country.