New Delhi: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday decided to review the welfare schemes of the NDA government.
The PAC, which is parliament’s audit watchdog, will also review the banking and insurance sectors and energy reforms, according to people familiar with the details.
The decisions were taken when Chowdhury, who was suspended from the lower house last month for alleged “gross and willful misconduct”, chaired its first meeting after his reinstatement. Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien attended the PAC meeting for the first time after being nominated to the committee.
A senior legislator and member of the committee said the plan to review the schemes and assess their performance on the ground is considered “critical” by many members.
“Social welfare measures have been developed as an important tool to create a vote bank of beneficiaries of such schemes. The Prime Minister had told how for the first time in 75 years, the NDA government has provided basic amenities to such a large number of people. In this context, review by PAC would be an important exercise,” said the MP on condition of anonymity.
However, another PAC member wondered how the panel could review the entire architecture of social welfare schemes and its effectiveness on the ground. There is no CAG report on the overall impact, while the CAG has submitted reports on individual schemes from time to time, the member said.
