Parliamentary panel clears Manmohan Singh of CWG wrongdoing

Ravi S. Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 11

Parliament 's Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday absolved former prime minister Manmohan Singh of wrongdoing in the corruption allegations that hit the Commonwealth Games India had hosted in 2010.

Committee chairman said KV Thomas said at a press briefing on Tuesday that there was no evidence to show that Singh — or the PMO — was involved in the scam. The committee will submit the report to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

"You will get the entire report tomorrow. One important point is that there is nothing against the then Prime Minister in it... Everything is black and white," Thomas told reporters outside the House.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

"There was a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, decisions were taken, and when the minutes (of the meeting) came, the then Sports Ministry said the spirit of the decisions was not carried in the minutes," Thomas said.

"There is nothing that Manmohan Singh or the PMO has done out of the way," he added.

He said there was unanimity on the findings and conclusions of the report, and pointed out that in the 24-member PAC, only four members were from the Congress party while the BJP has 12 members.

On the delay in presenting the report on the Commonwealth Games, Thomas said it was due to the large number of reports that the PAC has to go through.

In the last three years, the PAC under Thomas has presented 73 reports so far and the 74th report to be tabled.

He said the PAC report on the 2G spectrum sale will be tabled in Parliament before April 31, which is the last working day of the current Committee.

Thomas also said that the committee had recommended that the press should be allowed to watch PAC’s discussions.

Demonetisation

Thomas said that the committee would take some time to determine how much of the country’s scrapped banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 the central government was able to get back after its decision to put the currencies out of circulation in November 2016.

On being asked to comment on the debate about whether the Prime Minister can be called to appear before the committee, he said that although Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan ruled against it, a rule provided for it and the latter was more important.

"Manmohan Singh had agreed to appear before the PAC as Prime Minister, "he said.                       

Replying to a question about banks’ Non Performing Assets, he said that the committee had already questioned heads of banks and RBI Governor Urijit Patem adding that the central government spoke about waiving farm loans but remained silent on corporate debts. (With inputs from IANS)