The Public Accounts (PAC) of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly met here under the Chairmanship of MLA Mohammad Akbar Lone and discussed CAGs Audit Paras pertaining to the Social Welfare and Tribal Affairs Department.The specific issues relating to the payment of scholarships for un-recognized computer courses/ institutions, payment to ineligible students, direct release of payments to the computer institutions/ centres, sanctioning of scholarship on different applications etc were prominently discussed. Legislators, Aijaz Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, Pawan Kumar Gupta, R.S. Pathania, Firdous Ahmed Tak and Ghulam Nabi Monga attended the meeting and gave their valuable suggestions for further improvement in the working of Social Welfare & Tribal Affairs Department.The Committee also expressed its concern over the pending pension cases of old age, widow, handicapped and other allied categories, which are lying pending in the department and directed the Assembly Secretariat to write a letter to the Principal Secretary, Finance department to personally explain the liabilities in this regard before the committee in its next meeting.
The Committee also sought the views of the then Executive Engineer, R&B Udhampur and the then District Social Welfare Officer, Udhampur for not adopting the proper procedure for construction of the Girls Hostel at Udhampur. The Director General Accounts & Treasuries was directed to issue instructions to the Secretary Tribal Affairs to prepare the audit report/ certificate from the period 2015 onwards.Secretary Tribal Affairs, Salma Hamid briefed the committee about the action taken by the department on the issues raised in the CAGs audit paras. She assured that all the queries raised by the CAGs in its report would be completed at the earliest.
Accountant General, CAG, H. Abbas, Directors Social Welfare Kashmir/ Jammu also briefed the committee about the observations made by the CAG. Some paras were dropped by the Committee after convincing reasons by the concerned.Among others, Commissioner/ Secretary Social Welfare, Sajad Ahmed Khan, Director General Accountant & Treasuries, Altaf Hussan, MD, SC/ST/ BC Development Corporation, MD, JKWDC, Director Tribal Affairs, Additional Secretary, Legislative Assembly, besides senior officers of Departments of Social Welfare, Tribal Affairs and Assembly Secretariat were present in the meeting.