By IANS,
New Delhi: Condemning the ugly scenes in the Bihar assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday accused the opposition of kicking up a row over “unreconciled accounts”, or accounting anomalies, which it said existed in several central government ministries and many states.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapersons here that the unruly behaviour of some opposition members, including hurling a slipper at the speaker and smashing flower pots, “had shamed our democracy”.
“What happened in the Bihar legislature in both its houses is deeply regrettable and reprehensible… The opposition deliberately did not want any debate because many of its own misdeeds and glaring cases of corruption of the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) government duly supported by the Congress would have been exposed,” Prasad said.
Referring to the court ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged irregularities in withdrawals of Rs.11,412 crore from the state exchequer, Prasad said the matter will be dealt with legally.
However, he said the Comptroller and Auditor General report covers 2002-07, of which nearly 42 months were of the period when the RJD supported by Congress was in power and nearly 11 months were of President’s Rule.
“The issue relates to accounts adjustment and re-conciliation of expenditure,” Prasad said.
He said that merely because the CAG had mentioned some accounting anomaly, it should not be inferred as misappropriation.
“It is an ongoing process. Otherwise, thousands of crores of the expenditure of the government of India and state governments would become misappropriation straightaway because the CAG in its reports has pointed out that utilisation certificates had not been furnished,” he said.