Akbar Lone Chairs PAC meeting

Examines Audit paras pertaining to Home Department

JAMMU, MARCH 16: The Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly was held here today under the Chairmanship of MLA, Mohammad Akbar Lone to examine the Audit Paras regarding functioning of Home Department.

Legislators, Shamima Firdous, Ravinder Raina, Jeevan Lal, Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, Pawan Kumar Gupta and Firdous Ahmed Tak attended the meeting and gave their views regarding early settlement of the audit paras.

Threadbare discussions were held on Action Taken Reports submitted by the Home department regarding Audit Paras including Expenditure on Police establishments not approved for inclusion in the project, police computerization and present status of Crime and Criminal Tracking Networking and Systems (CCTNS) projects.

The Committee also discussed issues including non-utilization of equipment supplied under Police Modernization scheme for a forensic laboratory resulted in infructuous expenditure of Rs 54.75 lakh and non-utilization of two District Mobile Forensic Science Laboratories that resulted in blocking of funds to the extent of Rs 83.00 lakh besides short deduction of labourcess.

Deputy Accountant General, Audit, V K Bakshi also pointed out the observations made by the CAG in its report and gave certain suggestions regarding the settlement of the paras by the department.

            Principal Secretary, Home Department, R K Goyal and Director General of Police, JK State, S P Vaid, briefed the Committee about the action taken by the department on the CAG’s audit paras and assured the Committee to take the necessary steps to improve the working of the Home department.

            After satisfactory reply given by the concerned authorities of the Home department, the Committee decided to drop some audit paras accordingly.

Special DGP, V K Singh, ADGP Munir Khan, IG, Personal, PHQ, J P Singh, IG, Headquarter, PHQ, Anand Jain, Special Secretary, Assembly, R L Sharma, Additional Secretary Assembly, Manzoor Ahmed Baba, Deputy Secretary Assembly, Farooq Ahmed Khan besides other senior officers of Police Department and Assembly Secretariat were also present in the meeting.