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Days after the government and Congress wrapped up negotiations for the Parliamentary Standing Committees, the Opposition party has decided the allocations for chairs of the four committees it was allotted.
While Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor will head the Standing Committee on External Affairs, former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi will lead the Parliamentary panel on Agriculture. Koraput MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka will head the panel on Rural Development and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh will head the Standing Committee on Education.
The Indian Express reported on September 16 that the Congress will receive chairs for the Standing Committees on External Affairs, Agriculture, and Rural Development in the Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha, the Opposition party will chair the Standing Committee for Education.
Negotiations between the government and the Opposition parties over the committees had been going on for a couple of months. The Congress had sought chairs for five Parliamentary Standing Committees — four of Lok Sabha and one of Rajya Sabha. One chair each is also likely to be granted to INDIA partners Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and Trinamool Congress. For the one chair in the Rajya Sabha committees, the Congress had sought the crucial committee on Home Affairs.
Several rounds of meetings between the government representatives and Opposition members took place before the government decided to allocate the Standing Committee chairs to the Opposition.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Union Minister of State for Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal attended the meetings. The Congress was represented by Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi and party Chief Whips Kodikunnil Suresh and Jairam Ramesh.
On August 16, five standing committees of Parliament were constituted, with Congress MP and general secretary in charge (organisation) K C Venugopal named as the chairperson of the Committee on Public Accounts. As per convention, the post of chair of the Committee on Public Accounts is given to the Opposition.
The other committees constituted were the Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes, which will be headed by Ganesh Singh (BJP); Committee of Estimates, which will be headed by Sanjay Jaiswal (BJP); Committee on Public Undertakings, which will be headed by Baijayant Panda (BJP); and Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, which will be headed by Faggan Singh Kulaste (BJP).
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