Kolkata, 25 July (H.S.) : West Bengal Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta presented 28 volumes of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports to the state assembly on Saturday, saying that previous governments had not placed these reports before the House.

Addressing the assembly, the finance minister said the omission, which he described as a serious “constitutional lapse”, had persisted for several years under the previous administration led by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee. “In view of that past constitutional lapse, we are placing 28 parts of the CAG reports on the table of the House today,” he said.

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Questions raised over Rs 8 lakh crore debt

Dasgupta urged members to study the reports carefully, adding that their analysis would clarify how the state accumulated a debt burden of more than Rs 8 lakh crore. He said it was the current government’s moral and constitutional duty to present past errors and financial irregularities transparently to the public.

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Special assembly session planned

The government is considering convening a special assembly session in the near future to discuss various aspects of the CAG reports in detail, Minister said, noting the aim is to enable a comprehensive debate on the state’s financial condition. He did not specify when the special session would be called.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh