15 Lok Sabha Members Appointed to PAC, Cong MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to Head Committee

New Delhi: Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, was on Thursday appointed as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Chowdhury is the lone member of the party in the PAC from the House.

The appointment was made by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The PAC has 15 members from the Lok Sabha and seven from Rajya Sabha.

Nine of the 15 Lok Sabha members in the 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 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.

On Thursday, 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.