Bhartruhari Mahtab to lead Standing Committee on Finance, Tharoor to chair External Affairs

Senior Parliamentarian and BJP’s Member of Parliament from Odisha, Bhartruhari Mahtab, will lead the Department related Standing Committee on Finance, a bulletin issued by the Lok Sabha has said. Congress’ Parliamentarian from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor has been nominated to lead the Committee on External Affairs.

Notably absent from the list of committee leaders is UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

There are 24 such committees in all, with representation from various political parties. Each of the Committees has 31 members, including Chairman, with 21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. While 16 such committees are led by MPs from Lok Sabha, eight are chaired by Rajya Sabha MPs. Each of the committees has a tenure of one year.

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The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has been nominated to the Committee on Defence. The lone NCP Lok Sabha member Sunil Tatkare will lead the panel on Petroleum and Natural Gas and Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Appa Barne will helm the committee on Energy. JD(U)‘s Sanjay Jha will head the committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, while TDP’s Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy will chair the committee on Housing and Urban Affairs.

Congress members Charanjit Singh Channi and Saptagiri Ulaka have been made chairpersons of the committees on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing; and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj respectively. DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and K Kanimozhi will chair the committees on Industry; and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution respectively.

Former Union Ministers Anurag Thakur and Rajiv Pratap Rudy have been given chairmanship of the committees on Coal, Mines and Steel; and Water Resources respectively. BJP member Nishikant Dubey has been made chairman of the committee on Communications and Information Technology. BJP leader CM Ramesh will chair the committee on Railways.

Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has been appointed to lead the Parliamentary Committee on Women, Education, Youth, and Sports Affairs. Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav will chair the Health Affairs Committee. Other crucial appointments include BJP leader Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, who has been made head of the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs.

Responsibilities of the Standing Committees

The Standing Committees are assigned to consider the Demands for Grants of the concerned Ministries/ Departments and make a report on the same to the Houses. The report shall not suggest anything of the nature of cut motions. It examines Bills pertaining to the concerned Ministries/ Departments as are referred to the Committee by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Speaker, Lok Sabha. It considers annual reports of Ministries/Departments and make reports.

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The Standing Committees do not consider matters of day-to-day administration of the concerned Ministries/ Departments. These Committees also do not generally consider matters which are under consideration by other Parliamentary Committees. The report of the Standing Committees shall have persuasive value and will be treated as considered advice given by the Committees. These will not consider matters that are exclusively assigned to other Parliamentary Committees.