Jammu, Mar 12: Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather today took strong exception to the allegations leveled against him by senior leader of PDP Muzaffar Hussain Baig who had accused him of misleading the house by presenting fallacious figures in the budget.
 “They (PDP leaders) don’t know meaning of word mislead. Can I mislead the house, Can I tell a lie in the house…” Rather said while replying to discussion on the grants of Finance Department in the State Legislative Assembly.
 Launching a scathing attack on Baig, Rather said, “Baig has a habit of misleading the people, but I don’t have such habit”.
 “I have 37 years of parliamentary career and I am open to all. I never hide anything from anyone. I won’t tolerate the baseless allegations against me,” Rather said.
 Rather also took strong exception to Baig’s claim that Financial Regulation Budgetary Management Act (FRBM) was not formulated during their (PDP) tenure.
 “The reality is that the FRBM Act was formulated in 2006 when PDP was in power. The Act was notified on August 14, 2006 and it is also mentioned in the Act that from the date of notification of Act, the Act is implemented” he said.
 Criticizing the PDP, Rather said that 2009, PDP had not adhered to the Act. “And when NC came into power they implemented the Act. The implementation of Act was acknowledged by Planning Commission and also by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report. Now you tell me who is misleading the house,” Rather averred.
 Meanwhile, Speaker Muhammad Akbar Lone intervened and asked Rather not to say anything about a member who was not present in the house.
 Rather replied that he (Baig) had leveled these allegations in the House, following which the Speaker passed directions to Assembly secretariat to furnish transcript of both the speeches (Baig and Rather’s speech) and present before him on next Monday.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST