Major changes in parl panel reconstitution, Congress set to lose big

NEW DELHI: Major changes are expected as the Parliamentary Standing Committees are all set to be reconstituted in the coming few days.

As per top sources, the principal opposition Congress is all set to lose out on vital post of Chairmanship of Standing Committee for Home Affairs, which is a Rajya Sabha-chaired panel and Lok Sabha-chaired panel for Communication and Information Technology.

The IT committee was chaired by Shashi Tharoor from the Congress. "The committees are constituted every few years and it has been a precedent to rotate chairmanship accordingly," a source tells ANI.

In a letter written to the Leader of the house Piyush Goyal By the leader of the house Mallikarjun Kharge, it was cited that as per parliamentary niceties the post of chairman of committee for home affairs have always been given to the opposition.

An excerpt of the letter written by Kharge to Piyush Goyal, accessed by ANI reads, "As is understood, the post of Chairperson in respect of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change is being given to INC. The purpose of my present letter is to request that this time also, the post of Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs may be given to Congress.

"While I do appreciate that the number of particular parties determines the allocation of the post of Chairpersons to the respective parties. However, in a democracy, the accommodating understanding or principle of give-and-take goes a long way in ensuring the effective functioning of institutions like the Parliament. It is in this spirit that this time also, the post of Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs may be given to Congress. I sincerely hope that this request of our party would be acceded to."

It is confirmed through sources that the ruling party BJP is all set to keep crucial committees like IT and home affairs with itself.

The standing committee for environment and forest is currently which the Congress party and Jairam Ramesh is the chairman so they are likely to retain that committee and have also been offered the committee for commerce, say sources.

A number of other changes are also expected to take place in the reconstitution. Trinamool Congress which has one committee chairman of food processing in the form of Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay will have no new chairman of any committee in Parliament.

"We have seen how the Trinamool Congress has behaved with the BJP in the state of Bengal and it's time for them to get a dose of their own medicine as they have been extremely unkind in their approach towards opposition in the state", a source aware of the development tells ANI.

As far as the change of committee chairman is concerned the change will be that of the health committee. Professor Ram Gopal Yadav from the Samajwadi party has been holding the post for a very long time and is all set to be relieved of this committee. This post is also likely to go to a friendly opposition.

It will be the gain of a committee for DMK, as the party is all set to get the chairmanship of the committee for the industry.

YSR Congress which had a committee chairman for commerce is going to swap it for the big committee for transport tourism and aviation.

Several vacancies have been created in various committees in addition to the ending of the terms of the standing committees with more than 75 Members of Parliament retiring from the Upper House recently.