New Delhi: After about four months since the 17th Lok Sabha was formed, the government on Thursday, in a late evening development, announced various department-related standing committees. The Congress has been given the chairmanship of the committee on External Affairs (Shashi Tharoor), Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports (Digvijaya Singh), the committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing (Charanjit Singh Channi), and Rural and Panchayati Raj (Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka). Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is a member in the committee on defence.
The BJP has kept the chairmanship of the committees on Home Affairs (Radha Mohan Das Agrawal), Defence (Radha Mohan Singh), Finance (Bhartruhari Mahtab), Communications and IT (Nishikant Dubey), Railways (CM Ramesh), Labour, Textiles and Skill Development (Basavaraj Bommai), Social Justice and Empowerment (PC Mohan), and water resources (Rajiv Pratap Rudy).
Among other Opposition parties, TMC’s Dola Sen has been named as the chairperson of the committee on commerce, SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav to head the committee on Health and Family Welfare, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva the chairmanship of the committee on industry, TMC’s Kirti Azad has been made the chairman of the committee on fertilisers, and DMK’s Kanimozhi the chairperson of the committee on Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
Additionally, the BJP has set aside for the NDA allies the committee on Energy (Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Appa Chandu Barne), Housing and Urban Affairs (TDP’s Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy), and Petroleum and Natural Gas (NCP’s Sunil Tatkare).
The Committee of Home Affairs has as members Congress’s Ajay Maken, TMC’s Derek O’Brien, Kapil Sibal from the Rajya Sabha as well as NCP (Sharad)’s Supriya Sule, DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran, and TMC’s Mala Roy from the Lok Sabha. Congress RS MP Shaktisihn Gohil, NCP RS MP Praful Patel, and BJP RS MP Sudhanshu Trivedi are members from the upper house in the committee on defence, while from the Lok Sabha, Congress MPs Karti Chidambaram and S Jothimani, BJP MPs Jagadish Shettar and Radha Mohan Singh are members.
The committee on energy has as members Rajeev Shukla and Harsh Mahajan from the Rajya Sabha as well as Lok Sabha MPs Jagdambika Pal (BJP), Shrikanth Shinde (SS-Eknath), and Dimple Yadav (SP). The Committee on communications and IT has as members SP’s Jaya Bachchan, SS-UBT’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, BJD’s Sushmit Patra and INC’s KTS Tulsi from the Upper House, as well as BJP MPs Anil Baluni, Kangana Ranaut and Poonam Madam, and TMC’s Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha.
The Committee on Commerce has as members, TMC’s Dola Sen and DMK’s Kanimozhi from the upper House as well as Nishikant Dubey, Naveen Jindal, and Jay Panda from Lok Sabha. The Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports has Sushmita Dev, and Harbhajan Singh as members from Rajya Sabha and from the Lok Sabha has Congress’s Varsha Gaikwad and Bimol Akoijam, as well as BJP MPs Sambhit Patra, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Bansuri Swaraj.
The Committee on Health and Family Welfare has RS MPs Rameswar Teli and Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav among others, as well as Lok Sabha MPs Iqra Choudhary, Mahesh Sharma, and Aparajita Sarangi. The committee on Industry has RS MPs Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Tiruchi Siva as well as LS MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, among others.