Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury appointed as Chairman of Public Accounts Committee
Congress party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury appointed as Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The appointment was made by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The PAC has 15 members from the Lok Sabha and seven from Rajya Sabha.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019
Nine of the 15 Lok Sabha members in the Public Accounts committee — Jayant Sinha, Ajay (Teni) Misra, Satya Pal Singh, Subhash Chandra Baheria, Sudheer Gupta, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Vishnu Dayal Ram, Jagadambika Pal and Ram Kripal Yadav — are from the BJP.
The other members include T R Baalu (DMK), Rahul Ramesh Shewale (Shiv Sena), Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JD-U) and Balashowry Vallabbhaneni (YSR Congress Party) and Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD).
The members appointed from Rajya Sabha in PAC are Rajeev Chandrasekhar, M. V. Rajeev Gowda, Naresh Gujral, Bhubaneswar Kalita, C. M. Ramesh, Sukendu Sekhar Ray and Bhupender Yadav.
Birla who also named chairpersons of the Public Accounts Committee on Public Undertakings, Estimates Committee and Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The Estimates Committee will be headed by Girish Bhalchandra Bapat, Committee on Public Undertakings will be headed by Meenakshi Lekhi and Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be headed by Kirit Premjibhai Solanki.
The members of Estimates Committee include Dilip Ghosh, PP Choudhary, KC Patel, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, Danish Ali, Dayanidhi Maran and Kamlesh Paswan.
Members of Committee on Public Undertakings include Danish Ali, Kanimozhi, Poonamben Maadam, Saugata Roy, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Anil Jain, Om Prakash Mathur and Mahesh Poddar.
Members of Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes include Santokh Singh Chaudhary, Tapir Gao, Vincent H Pala, Chedi Paswan, A Raja, Shamsher Singh Dullo and Wasnuk Syiem.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury expressed hope that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla would emerge as the best Speaker in the Commonwealth countries on the back of his sterling performance in conducting the proceedings in the Lower House.
Speaking during the debate on The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019, Chowdhury said Birla plays a major role in the proceedings of the House which allows the Opposition to put forth all its queries.
What is Public Accounts Committee (PAC) ?
The PAC has 15 members from Lok Sabha and seven from Rajya Sabha. The term of office of members of the committee does not exceed one year at a time.
The Committee headed by a member from the opposition party. It was in 1967 that the Lok Sabha Speaker first appointed a member of opposition as Chairman of the committee.
The functions of the Committee and Procedure, Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, include an examination of accounts showing the appropriation of sums.
They are granted by Parliament for the expenditure of the Government of India.
The annual financial accounts of the Government and such other accounts laid before the House as the Committee.