SHILLONG: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly has termed as serious breach the stand of Special Law Secretary L.M. Sangma assisted by Advocate General K.S. Kynjing for presenting adverse view points on the intervention of PAC to check the anomalies in the disbursement of money for land acquisition for expansion of Umroi Airport without referring the matter either to the Assembly Secretariat or to the PAC.
The issue was discussed by the members of PAC with Assembly Speaker A.T. Mondal on Thursday.
Briefing media persons on Friday, PAC Chairman Paul Lyngdoh said the High Court of Meghalaya during its ruling on November 26 had made a reference about the limited role of PAC based on the affidavit of Law Secretary.
The PAC Chairman found it strange that the matter pertaining to the activities of PAC was neither referred to the Assembly Secretariat nor to the PAC before taking up the matter with the Court.
Concerned over the issue, the meeting held between the PAC members and the Speaker decided to strengthen the legal cell of the Assembly while it was also decided to file an affidavit before the Court explaining the stand of PAC.
Earlier, during the hearing of the case on November 26, after Special Secretary to the Law department filed an affidavit on the functions and constitution of the Committee of Public Accounts of Meghalaya, the High Court had observed that the PAC has limited role to play in the matter of disbursement of compensation.
“We have carefully gone through the provisions and the one area which the Chairman of the PAC seems to have misconstrued and misunderstood by asking the officers like the Deputy Commissioner to appear before him to give the account of disbursement under Article 241(1) (2) (a) regarding money shown in the accounts as having been disbursed were legally available for, and applicable to, the service or purpose to which they had been applied or charged,” the Court had said.
According to the Full Bench of the High Court, under this clause there is a very limited role of PAC except to ensure that the “money shown in the accounts have been provided in accordance with law and are applicable to, the service or purpose for which they have been applied and charged. Thereafter, the business of the Committee has to stop,” the Court had observed.
The Advocate General had also told the Court that the issue of disbursement of compensation does not fall within the domain of the PAC.
However, Lyngdoh said, “The Special Secretary, Law assisted by Advocate General presented their viewpoints without the knowledge of PAC which is serious breach and hence we took up the matter with the Speaker on Thursday.”
According to Lyngdoh, during the hearing, at no point of time, the opinion of the Speaker or the PAC was sought.
“During the meeting, it was viewed that there was serious breach on the part of the Law department as it cannot represent the viewpoints of any committee,” Lyngdoh said.
The Chairman pointed out that the PAC was duly and constitutionally elected body. “When it was constituted in 2013, there was election, and again the re-constituted committee is also an elected body. Opinion of this Committee cannot be equated with Law Secretary or Advocate General,” Lyngdoh said.
The PAC Chairman further said that as per the practice and procedure of Parliament, the PAC can go into any matter and need not be restricted to follow up the findings of CAG.
Quoting the guide book of the Public Accounts Committee of the Assembly, Lyngdoh said, “The Committee may, if it thinks fit make a special report on any matter that arises or comes to light in the course of its work.”
Lyngdoh said that PAC can also go beyond the issue of expenditure of money granted to a project and can inquire into the losses and financial irregularities.
The PAC Chairman also referred to an order of the Supreme Court which said that the right to property is part of human right and the land owners have the rights to fair compensation for plots acquired by the government.
Allaying misgivings about the role of PAC, Lyngdoh said the purpose of the intervention of PAC was to speed up the process of completion of the Airport and there was no question of delaying the land acquisition process.
It was based on the complaints of many landowners that the PAC has intervened in an attempt to speed up the land acquisition process and to see that the Shillong Airport becomes a reality, he said.
