Chatterjee: Setting a trend

New Delhi, June 3: Somnath Chatterjee’s efforts to limit junkets by MP on parliamentary committees seem to be bearing fruit.

Taking cue from the Congress’s strong endorsement of the Lok Sabha Speaker’s revised guidelines on these tours, party members are apparently opting out of the Public Accounts’ Committee’s proposed visit to Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Goa beginning tomorrow.

Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh, one of the party’s seven nominees in the 22-member PAC, has reportedly written to the committee’s chairman, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, saying he would be unable to be on the trip.

Other Congress members on the panel ? R.K. Dhawan, V. Narayansamy, A.R. Antulay, M. Sreenivasulu Reddy, Madan Lal Sharma and K.V. Thangka Balu ? are likely to follow suit.

A couple of days ago, Malhotra, also deputy leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha, had stirred a controversy when he claimed that PAC members were unhappy with the Speaker’s revised guidelines, particularly their “tone and tenor”.

According to the guidelines, committees should undertake only tours that are absolutely necessary so as to bring about simplicity and austerity.

Defending the new rules, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi today said the party welcomed the Speaker’s well-intended initiative. “Many of the revised guidelines were actually in existence for long though they were not followed,” he added.

About Malhotra’s contention that PAC members were miffed with the guidelines, Singhvi said: “If there is any genuine grievance of an MP, which would hamper discharge of duties of members, the authorities concerned would surely be open for discussions.”