Now, some limit would have to be indicated, above which the whole concern would be regarded as sufficiently a state concern to attract the exercise of the functions of the comptroller and auditor general. And at the appropriate time, I have no doubt that the house will be invited to give its thoughts to these matters and we might remove any doubts that might be lingering in the mind of the comptroller and auditor-general or in the mind of the public accounts committee. Next, I come to the control of parliament. The hon. Member quoted something form the U.K. As far as I can decipher the public accounts committee is never eliminated. I do not know whether I misunderstood him. Anyway, I make the statement that all reports and accounts issued by the corporations are presented to parliament and consequently are subject to scrutiny by the public accounts committee. It is the comptroller and auditor-general who does not not always figure in these matters. But, there is a move to appoint an officer equal in status to the comptroller and auditor-general. Slow economic growth and higher salaries will make the combined fiscal deficit figure touch the 10 per cent of GDP mark. That is very alarming. Therefore, following the familiar storyline about a hand rocking the Indian growth cradle leaves several questions unanswered. First, why did not fiscal consolidation take place in good years? Second, high growth resulted from cheap capital. Once interest rates were hiked and growth slowed, before September 2008, why were not pre-emptive measures introduced to handle job losses instead of waiting for scary figures of 5 to 10 million job losses to surface? Third, why did one has to wait for identification of BPL households? Now, the Planning Commission will set up the Unique Identification Authority for subsidised public delivery. When will it come? On account of votes, the Vote-on-Account recognises utility of the NREGA, SSA, MDMS, Bharat Nirman and farmers debt relief. These are the six slogans which are being touted.
