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| Guv compelled to make public ‘approval’ of Audit report? | | Goof-up goes wrong | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Feb 25: Governor N.N. Vohra issued an official handout about his approval of the Reports of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for being laid before the two Houses of the State legislature.
This is for the first time since the last five years that Governor N.N. Vohra's office issued a handout to share something which is essentially of no-consequence for the general public or the media. The handout is more an official communication between the State Government and the Governor's office, something which Raj Bhawan communicates as a matter of routine to the State Government.
But what compelled Governor to issue a handout remains a mystery. But events do point out that it is not merely a clerical mistake or a simple goof up at the managerial level. Governor N.N. Vohra's office issued the first official handout at 11.30 am in the morning i.e. exactly after the question hour in the legislative Assembly was over and day's business in the two houses was out in the public.
The handout had carefully worded. Dateline mentioned, Jammu, February 24; thus indicating that the event took place on February 24, the handout said "N.N. Vohra, Governor, issued an order today, in pursuance of Article 151(2) of the Constitution of India, for laying before the State Legislature, the Reports of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Appropriation Accounts 2012-13, Finance Accounts 2012-13, (Volume-1 and Volume-2), State Finances for the year ended 31st March, 2013 and on Revenue Sector and Public Sector undertakings (Social, General and Economic Sector) for the year ended 31st March, 2013."
This handout referred to an order issued by the Governor N.N. Vohra for laying of the CAG reports. At around 4.34 PM, Governor Public Relation Office issued another handout with a changed dateline; Jammu, February 25, to indicate that it was a clerical mistake and has been corrected. Not even a single word had been changed from the original handout. The handout mentioned 'Order has been issued."
However, at around 5.49 PM, another handout was issued in which the language had been modified. The new handout now read "Mr. N.N. Vohra, Governor, approved today, in pursuance of Article 151(2) of the Constitution of India, for laying before the State Legislature, the Reports of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Appropriation Accounts 2012-13, Finance Accounts 2012-13, (Volume-1 and Volume-2), State Finances for the year ended 31st March, 2013 and on Revenue Sector and Public Sector undertakings (Social, General and Economic Sector) for the year ended 31st March, 2013."
This handout had seemingly been issued to clarify that Governor had not issued the order but approved the reports for being laid before the two houses of the State legislature. However, what made the entire happening interesting was that the Information Department too stepped in and at around 8.18 PM issued a handout which had already been issued by the Governor N.N. Vohra's office thrice.
Early Times did venture out to find story behind this goof-up but found none coming forward to share the information. It confirmed from the two houses that the laying of Audit Report was not in the Wednesday's business of the State legislature. Business on the website of the Legislative Council also made no mention of report being tabled in the house on Wednesday.
On being asked, sources in the legislative Assembly at around 10.30 PM said that they are yet to receive any communication about tabling of the audit report. They did say that Government can decide about it in the morning and issued a supplementary business notification for tabling of the report. |
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