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Monday, Aug 09, 2004

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National

High-profile MPs in key panels

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI, AUG. 8 . The 24 Parliamentary Committees constituted recently have the presence of high-profile members in key committees.

The Opposition, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party members, will head seven of the committees including Home, External Affairs and Finance while two of its allies — the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will head Science and Technology, and the Shiv Sena, Chemicals and Fertilizers.

The Congress heads eight committees, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - 3, the Samajwadi Party - 2, the CPI and the Rashtriya Janata Dal one each. Lok Sabha members head 16 committees and the rest would be by Rajya Sabha members.

Of the eight committees that belong to the Rajya Sabha, the former Union Minister, Sushma Swaraj, will head the one on Home Affairs. The panel includes the former Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the former top police officer from Karnataka, H.T. Sangliana. The Congress has sent its `Generation Next' members, Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot and Naveen Jindal to the committee.

E.M. Sudarsan Natchiappan (Congress) heads the committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, and it includes eminent members like Justice (retired) N.Y. Hanumanthappa, the former Chief Election Commissioner, M.S. Gill, legal luminary Ram Jethmalani and former Governor P.C. Alexander. In the rest of the Rajya Sabha committees, Commerce would be headed by the former Union Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi; Human Resource Development by Vayalar Ravi, Industry by Santosh Bagrodia of the Congress; Science and Technology by P.G. Narayanan of the AIADMK; Health and Family Welfare by the Samajwadi Party general secretary, Amar Singh and Transport, Tourism and Culture by Nilotpal Basu, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader in the House.

Among industrialists, Anil Ambani is a member of the committee on HRD, Raj Kumaya on Industry and M.A.M. Ramasamy joins the committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Of the 16 Lok Sabha committees, the BJP heads five including Finance and External Affairs. The former Union Minister, Bhuvan Chand Khanduri, chairs the Finance Committee. Among its members are the former Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, and the BJP chief, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Left leaders like Gurudas Dasgupta, Rup Chand Pal, the Congress' Murli Deora, Jairam Ramesh and Jyotiraditya Scindia and Telugu Desam leader, C. Ramachandhraiah.

Laxminarayan Pandey heads the Committee on External Affairs and it has former Union Ministers Vinod Khanna, Omar Abdullah and P.A. Sangma as its members.

The Congress, which heads five of these 16 committees, nominated former Minister, Balasahib Vikhe Patil to chair a key committee like Defence. It includes the former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and three former Chief Ministers, including Farooq Abdullah. The BJP also nominated journalist-turned-politician Manvendra Singh, who also serves in the Territorial Army, Pramod Mahajan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The Congress has sent Milind Deora and Suresh Kalmadi. The former Army Chief, Shankar Roy Chowdhary, is also a member of this committee.

The Chairpersons of the other Committees are: Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (Agriculture), M.M. Pallam Raju of the Congress (Information and Techonolgy); R. Prabhu of the Congress (Energy); Devendra Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution); P.K. Vasudevan Nair of the CPI (Labour); N. Janardhana Reddy of the Congress (Petroleum and Natural Gas); Basudeb Acharia of the CPI (M) (Railways); Mohammed Salim of the CPI (M) (Urban Development), R. Sambasiva Rao of the Congress (Water Resources); Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena (Chemicals and Fertilizers); Kalyan Singh of the BJP (Rural Development); Anant Kumar of the BJP (Coal and Steel); and Sumitra Mahajan of the BJP (Social Justice and Empowerment).

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