All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) leader and former chief minister Mukul Sangma on Friday slammed the state government for trying to run away from being accountable.
His statement came after the House was adjourned by the Speaker despite only two days allotted for Private Members’ Business.
“Now if you go by the trend of what has been seen today and also the overall tendency to shrink the duration is available for a healthy discussion, deliberation and debate the whole indication is reflective of their tendency to run away from being accountable, the responsible of being accountable particularly in a session where we are passing a full budget,” Sangma told reporters.
Reminding that the current session is not a budget for vote on account but is a full budget session for passing the full budget, the former chief minister said, “Therefore, enough discussion and deliberation (should be given) to instill in the minds of the people of the state, the confidence, accountability to legislature means accountability to people, so along with the power and authority comes responsibility. Therefore, it is only reflective of their predetermined intent to run away from the sense of responsibility and accountability and it is not something which is in sync with the spirit of core values of the democracy which we prescribed to sustain and preserve.”
Stating that the session is very short, Sangma said, “Look at the calendar of the session you have only two days allocated for private members business and even when you’re looking at the government business, you have only one day to clear the supplementary demands. Then you have one day to discuss budget and how much time is available for the house to scrutinize, it is not a question of the responsibility of individual members of august house it is the responsibility that is expected from the whole house meaning all the members of the august house including members of the ruling and opposition.”
“Everything has to be properly scrutinized and mandated and voted on because for every paisa to be spent by any department of the government has to be voted by the house, so where is the scope for scrutiny,” he added.