Various department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees reconstituted

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 9

Various department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees were reconstituted on Saturday by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in consultation with Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

Congress’s Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma will continue to head the standing committee on Home Affairs and Jairam Ramesh of the party will retain the chairmanship of the panel on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

BJP member Sushil Kumar Modi has been appointed the new chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, in place of Bhupender Yadav, who has become a minister.

Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, a member of Lok Sabha, will also continue to head the committee on Information Technology.

According to the bulletins issued by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats, the reconstituted committees for the year 2021-22 shall be with effect from September 13, 2021.

BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad has been included as a member in the Parliamentary panel on Finance and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in the panel on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. Both Prasad and Nishank were dropped as Union ministers in the last cabinet reshuffle.

Former chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has been included as a member in the panel on Information Technology, while Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur has been included in the panel on Railways.

YSR Congress’s Vijaysai Reddy has been reappointed the chairperson of the panel on Commerce, SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav of Health and Family Welfare, TRS member K Keshava Rao of Industry, DMK’s Kanimozhi on the panel on chemicals and fertilizers and JD(U)’s Rajiv Ranjan Singh will head the panel on energy.

TMC member Sudip Bandyopadhyay will continue to head the panel on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution and BJD member Bhartruhari Mahtab of the panel on Labour.

The chairmen of other department-related parliamentary panels have not been changed, a majority of which continue to be headed by BJP MPs. A total of 24 department-related parliamentary standing committees are constituted every year. Each panel comprises 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.