PAC grills Centre, States on ‘fraud markers’ flagged by CAG in SC scholarship schemes

Congress MP and Public Accounts Committee chairman K.C. Venugopal speaks to the media after the meeting of the PAC, in New Delhi on October 15, 2026. | Photo Credit: ANI

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Thursday (October 15, 2026) grilled the Union government and several State governments over their responses to gaps, including “fraud markers”, in the implementation of pre- and post- matric scholarships for Scheduled Caste students identified by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The PAC, headed by Congress MP K.C. Venugopal, is likely to move privilege notices against the Chief Secretaries of six States who were supposed to appear before it on Thursday (October 15, 2026) to explain the gaps flagged in the 2025 CAG report but failed to do so, The Hindu has learnt. Further, with the Union government responding to the gaps by saying the implementation burden was on State and Union Territory administrations, the PAC has given the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry one month’s time to submit a detailed action-taken report on each of the issues flagged by the CAG.