After the change of power in Maharashtra, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and some other committees of Maharashtra State Assembly have become non-functional since over a year. These committees are formed to keep a check on the State Government. The reason behind those being non-functional lies in the change in political equations and lack of unity among the constituents of Maha Vikas Aaghadi. The key committees, apart from PAC, which are not functioning include Estimates Committee and Panchayat Raj Committee. These committees have heads from the opposition bench and most members too are from opposition. PAC was formed in 2020-21 when Maha Vikas Aaghadi was in power. Sudhir Mungantiwar became the Chairperson of the committee with Bhaskar Jadhav, Prakash Surve, Mahesh Shinde, Mansingh Naik, Dharmraobaba Atram, Anna Bansode, Babasaheb Patil, Prithviraj Chavan, Suresh Warpudkar, Sangram Thopte, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Adv Ashish Shelar, Jaikumar Rawal, Randhir Sawarkar, Sanjay Sawkare, Rajendra Patni, Vinay Kore, Chandrakant Nimba Patil were the members.

 

After the change in power in Maharashtra, Mungantiwar became the part of ruling side and he had to demit the office of PAC. Obviously, the members too had to follow him. The mega alliance led by Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis came in power in 2022, since then these committees have not formed. Shinde group split from Shiv Sena, in recent development, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) too was divided. All these splits have greater impact on these committees. Surprisingly, no one from opposition spoke on this issue in the recently concluded winter session of State Legislature in Nagpur. According to sources, present Government is willing to constitute PAC but there is no consensus among the constituents of Maha Vikas Aaghadi regarding incorporating the members. Most names should come from opposition. Shiv Sena (UBT) has not claimed the key post of Chairperson.

 

But NCP and Congress have expressed their willingness to get the post. From NCP, the name of Rohit Pawar, MLA and from Congress, Ashok Chavan are moved. As per the tradition, the opposition party having highest legislators gets the post. After the split, NCP and Shiv Sena have shrunk while Congress has emerged as the largest party in MVA. Nobody is claiming the stake in an aggressive manner and not demanding the formation of committees like PAC, Estimate and Panchayat Raj. Another important issue is of question mark of qualification of MLAs. Because of split, the cases of qualification of MLAs of NCP and Shiv Sena have reached court. These parties have to remain cautious while recommending the names to be incorporated in these committees. These committees look at issues such as expenditure of various departments, budget allocation and its use, irregularities, if any, in the spending, among others, and submit their report to the state for further action. The PAC also reviews of the performance of the departments on the basis of the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).