Congress complaint on the basis of CAG report boomerangs: Parrikar

Panaji, Oct 26 (UNI) Former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has said the criminal complaint against him on the basis of the observations of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India Report-2004, filed by the Congress, will boomerang in wake of the coming elections to the state.

''The Congress can't take people for granted. The complaint is going to boomerang on the government in the wake of the coming elections,'' Mr Parrikar told media persons when asked of his reactions to the criminal complaint registered against him by Panaji Police lodged by the GPCC general secretary Mauvin Godinho.

Reacting to the development, Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane told mediapersons ''the law will take its own course and I am not a legal expert to say whether the observations made by the CAG could form the basis for lodging criminal complaints against governments.'' Mr Godinho filed the complaint with the police on October 24 under the Prevention of Corruption Act, besides various sections of the IPC on basis of the CAG report alleging huge losses to the exchequer and corresponding unlawful gains through misappropriation of money spent on holding the International Film Festival 2004.

He had to file at least seven criminal complaints against the current Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane, Power Minister and PWD Minister among others if one was to go by the observations made by the CAG in its auditing of public accounts.

It was for the respective public accounts committees to scrutinise the ''irregularities'' if any and take remedial measures. But every citizen has the right to lodge criminal complaints against anybody, on the basis of the information one had, good or bad and the police cannot refuse to register.

Unfortunately, the public accounts committee headed by the GPCC president Ravi Naik had not yet found time to convene a meeting in this regard. The government was so degenerate that it failed to keep the tradition of making an opposition member as the chairman of the PAC, Mr Parrikar said.

It however does not mean that whatever is alleged is true or false. It would be known only after due investigation, he added.

The CBI had already been investigating the ''irregularlties of the IFFI'' at the behest of the current Congress-led coalition government for the last 16 months and nothing substantial had come out of it so far.

''CM or chairman of a public sector company does not decide. They take the decision involving all stake holders through a due process,'' he added.

Mr Parrikar reiterated his contention that the CAG's report was half-truth, defective and based on wrong information submitted by the current government against his government.

The irregularities found in the IFFI issue was nothing compared to those in the earlier reports involving Chief Minister Rane besides Power, PWD and other ministries.

He refused to divulge the party's strategy to expose the grave and criminal irregularities, which he said had found, until full proof was secured.

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