The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Cong’s Kharge is new PAC chairman
LEADER OF the Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, has become the chairman of the 21member Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, replacing K V Thomas, whose term ended on April 30.
The Indian Express had reported on March 14 that Kharge will be the new chairman of the PAC. Thomas was PAC chairman for three consecutive terms since 2014.
The tenure of Thomas as PAC Chairman was full of controversies. In the last week of January, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had written to Lok Sabha Speaker accusing Thomas of “breach of privilege” and “lowering the dignity” of the committee for “ulterior political motives” and urged her to treat his missive as a privilege notice and refer the matter to the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee.
This was the first time a member of a parliamentary panel had given a privilege notice against its chairman. The PAC had during this time examined a number of key contentious issues such as demonetisation and the Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, most members on the panel have been retained by their respective parties, barring two.
The BJP has replaced two members, and Subhash Chandra Baheria and Ram Shankar have been named new members from the party in place of Richard Hay and Janardan Singh Sigriwal.
The PAC is always headed by a member from an Opposition party. Like in the last PAC, NDA members were in the majority even in the newly-structured panel, whose setting up was announced by the Lok Sabha secretariat on Tuesday.
“The PAC has been constituted for the term beginning May 1, 2017 and ending on April 30, 2018. Mallikarjun Kharge has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Committee,” a communique from the Lok Sabha secretariat said.
Other MPS from the Lok Sabha in the panel are Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Nishikant Dubey, Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Riti Pathak, Neiphiu Rio, Abhishek Singh, Kirit Somaiya, Anurag Singh Thakur, Shivkumar C Udasi and P Venugopal.
From the Rajya Sabha, the MPS who are part of the panel are Naresh Agrawal, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Shantaram Naik, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Ajay Sancheti and Bhupender Yadav.