New Delhi: In the biggest reshuffle of parliamentary standing committees in recent days, at least a dozen chairmen have been reshuffled while Congress leaders have been removed as heads of committees on home affairs and information technology, officials said on Tuesday. Told.
The Trinamool Congress has been denied any president post and the Samajwadi Party (SP) is no longer in charge of the health committee.
According to officials, at least four Speakers have lost their seats and six MPs have been promoted as panel chiefs. All the changes have been made effective from 13 September.
Congress will lead the Chemicals and Fertilizers Panel and the Commerce Committee. The Trinamool’s defeat is linked to the current situation in the West Bengal Assembly where no BJP leader heads a House committee. The declining strength of the SP in the Upper House had to pay the price for the presidency of the health panel.
While Trinamool and SP lost their seats, two DMK leaders – Thiruchi Siva and M Kanimozhi – are now heading the parliamentary panel. While Siva is the chairman of the industries committee, Kanimozhi, who was earlier the head of the chemicals and fertilizers committee, is now in charge of the rural development panel.
Congress is set to chair the panels of chemicals and fertilizers, and commerce.
The Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Committee has been removed from the Trinamool and BJP’s Bengal MP Locket Chatterjee is the new chairman.
Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien tweeted, “The 3rd largest party in the #Parliament, the All India Trinamool Congress is also the 2nd largest opposition party, it doesn’t get a single Speaker. At the same time, the largest opposition party loses two important presidencies of parliament committees. This is the bitter reality of New India.”
BJP’s Vivek Thakur has become the chairman of the education committee, while the earlier Congress’s Abhishek Singhvi-led home committee is now under BJP leader Brijlal. The ruling party’s Rajya Sabha MP Bhubaneshwar Kalita heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health.
The IT panel, which was earlier headed by Shashi Tharoor, is now under Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav. BJP’s Jagdambika Pal will head the energy committee instead of the urban development committee, which will now be headed by JD(U)’s Rajeev Ranjan (Lallan) Singh.
The Water Resources Committee is now headed by Parbatbhai Patel of BJP. Earlier it was led by Sanjay Jaiswal of BJP.
However, the Parliament Bulletin has not announced the reconstituted committees on commerce, and chemicals and fertilisers. The Congress is confident that its MLAs will head both the panels.
