Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister KV Thomas was on Wednesday made the new chairman of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a prestigious panel which examines CAG reports after they are tabled in the House.
The post of PAC chairman usually goes to the main Opposition party in Parliament but the development assumes significance as it comes against the backdrop of the bad blood between the Government and Congress over denial of leader of Opposition post status to the latter.The PAC, constituted every year, consists of not more than 22 members — 15 members elected by lok Sabha and not more than seven members from Rajya Sabha.
“We will work as a team. We will examine whatever issues are placed before us,” Thomas, the former Union minister, said after taking over. The first meeting of the Committee will take place next week. Murli Manohar Joshi (BJP) was the chairman of the PAC in last lok Sabha.
The PAC’s controversial 2011 draft report on the 2G scam, which had indicted former Telecom Minister A Raja and come down heavily on the PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat for not taking “corrective action”, continued to be on its ‘unfinished agenda’ for three years.