West Bengal Tabulates 28 CAG Reports After Admitting 'Constitutional Lapse'

West Bengal Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta on Saturday placed 28 volumes of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports in the State Assembly, acknowledging that their non-presentation in previous years amounted to a 'constitutional lapse'.

Addressing the House, Dasgupta said the government had failed to table these reports for an 'unknown reason' in the past, a lapse that he said must be corrected. He urged lawmakers to study the reports, which he claimed would explain the state's mounting debt of over ₹8 lakh crore.

'Keeping that constitutional lapse in mind, we are tabling 28 volumes of the CAG report before the House,' the Minister said. He added that the government plans to hold a special Assembly session in the future to discuss the findings.

'It is our duty to place the government's mistakes before the people through these reports,' Dasgupta stated, calling for transparency and accountability.

The CAG reports are statutory audits of state finances and schemes. Their delayed submission had been a point of contention, with opposition parties accusing the previous government of hiding financial irregularities.