Adhir Chowdhury urges Lok Sabha speaker to allow PAC meet on India’s vaccination policy

By PTI

NEW DELHI: Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has urged Speaker Om Birla to allow the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to meet and deliberate on the country’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.

In a letter to the speaker, Chowdhury said that having an “effective vaccination policy” is the need of the hour to tackle the pandemic and the PAC should meet either physically or virtually to discuss it.

He said the policy on vaccination has become central and is of utmost importance in these days of crisis.

“As the lives and livelihood of the people of the country as a whole are dependant on an effective vaccination policy, I would request you to kindly permit the Public Accounts Committee to meet and deliberate upon this subject matter with the representatives of the government — the Ministry of Health, ICMR and others concerned,” he said in his letter.

The Congress leader, who is also the chairman of the PAC, said the meeting could be by any mode, either physical or virtual, depending upon the COVID-19 situation.

“Given the seriousness of the issues confronting us, and going by the past precedents and practise, I would once again request you to permit the committee to meet at the earliest to discuss and deliberate on the vaccination policy being pursued for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

The Congress has been seeking the holding of parliamentary committee meetings virtually, if not physically, when the country is reporting over 4.5 lakh cases of coronavirus everyday.

Chowdhury also highlighted that the Public Accounts Committee, as well as other committees, have a key role to play in the parliamentary system and no panel is in a position to meet in this critical time.

He said that the Parliament and its committees, the Public Accounts Committee in particular, have a serious responsibility to discharge by way of discussing, deliberating and giving suggestions and recommendations on ways of tackling and resolving the problems currently confronting the antion due to the pandemic.