The Parliamentary standing committees have been restructured with prominent political leaders across party lines getting significant roles in the panels.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, has been appointed as a member of the Defense Affairs Committee. Radha Mohan Singh of the BJP will chair the newly restructured parliamentary panel, the reports said.
The Communications and Information Technology committee will be headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey. Interestingly, actress-turned-politician and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut has also been appointed as a member of the committee. This would be her first official role in the parliamentary matters.
Parliamentary Committee on Women, Education, Youth, and Sports Affairs will be led by veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party of SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav will chair the Health Affairs Committee.
The Foreign Affairs Committee will be looked after by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. He will work alongside Arun Govil, a BJP MP and actor, they said.
Other important appointments include BJP leader Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, who has been appointed as the head of the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs, while the Parliamentary Committee on Finance will be headed by BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab.
CM Ramesh of BJP will chair the Parliamentary Committee on Railways and former minister Anurag Thakur will chair the parliamentary panel on Coal, Mines and Steel.
Notably, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is absent from the list of committee leaders.
Various BJP allies, including the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United), along with poll-bound Maharashtra partners Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), have also been assigned leadership roles on key panels.
Sunil Tatkare of NCP will chair the committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas, while Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Appa Barne has been appointed to lead the committee on Energy.
Sanjay Jha of JD(U) will chair the committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture, and TDP’s Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy will oversee the committee on Housing and Urban Affairs.
Charanjit Singh Channi and Saptagiri Ulaka of Congress have been appointed to head the committees on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Food Processing, and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, respectively.
*DMK leaders Tiruchi Siva and K Kanimozhi will chair the committees on Industry, and Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution.
Water Resources parliamentary panel has been given to former Union Minister and BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Parliamentary panels play a crucial role in overseeing various union ministries. They scrutinize budgetary allocations, review bills introduced in Parliament, and advise the union government on significant issues.
There are two kinds of Parliamentary Committees – Standing Committees and Ad Hoc Committees. Any subject related to these committees is dealt with Article 118 (1) of the Indian Constitution.
