Lok Sabha Speaker constitutes six new parliamentary committees for 2024-25

Lok Sabha Speaker constitutes six new parliamentary committees for 2024-25

Sub: Polity

Sec:  Parliament

Context:

• Lok Sabha Speaker constituted six new Parliamentary Committees, including the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which keeps a close eye on government expenditure, to be headed by senior Congress leader K.C. Venugopal.

The new committees are:

• Public Accounts Committee
• Estimates Committee
• Public Undertakings Committee
• Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes
• Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

About the committees:

PAC

The PAC, one of the three key financial committees tasked with keeping a watch on the government’s accounts, is usually headed by a senior Lok Sabha member of the principal Opposition party.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury headed the PAC for five years. Before him, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has also headed the PAC.

• Public Accounts Committee was introduced in 1921 after its first mention in the Government of India Act, 1919 also called Montford Reforms. It is existing in the Indian Constitution since then.
• PAC is one of the parliamentary committees that examine the annual audit reports of CAG which the President lays before the Parliament of India. Those three reports submitted by CAG are:
  • Audit report on appropriation accounts
  • Audit report on finance accounts
  • Audit report on public undertakings
• The Public Accounts Committee examines public expenditure.
• That public expenditure is not only examined from a legal and formal point of view to discover technical irregularities but also from the point of view of the economy, prudence, wisdom, and propriety.
• The sole purpose to do this is to bring out cases of waste, loss, corruption, extravagance, inefficiency, and nugatory expenses.
• Election of Members -By Parliament every year with proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote (A minister cannot be elected)
• Members – 22. Out of 22 members, 15 are elected from Lok Sabha (Lower House) and 7 members are elected from Rajya Sabha (Upper House.)
• Term of office – one year
• Chairman – Speaker appoints him/her from amongst the members, invariably from the Opposition Party since 1967.
• Its limitation – It can keep a tab on the expenses only after they are incurred. It has no power to limit expenses

Constitution The Committee on Estimates

It is constituted for the first time in 1950, is a Parliamentary Committee consisting of 30 members, elected every year by the Lok Sabha from amongst its Members. The Chairperson of the Committee is appointed by the Speaker from amongst its members. A Minister cannot be elected as a member of the Committee and if a member after selection to the Committee is appointed a Minister, the member ceases to be a Member of the Committee from the date of such appointment. Term of Office The term of office of the Committee is one year. Functions

 The functions of the Estimates Committee are:

• to report what economies, improvements in organisation, efficiency or administrative reform, consistent with the policy underlying the estimates may be affected;
• to suggest alternative policies in order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration;
• to examine whether the money is well laid out within the limits of the policy implied in the estimates; and
• to suggest the form in which the estimates shall be presented to Parliament. The Committee does not exercise its functions in relation to such Public Undertakings as are allotted to the Committee on Public Undertakings by the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of Lok Sabha or by the Speaker.

Constitution The Committee on Public Undertakings

• It is a Parliamentary Committee consisting of 22 Members, fifteen of whom are elected by the Lok Sabha every year from amongst its Members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote and seven Members to be nominated by Rajya Sabha for being associated with the Committee.
• The Chairman is appointed by the Speaker from amongst the Members of the Committee. A Minister is not eligible to become a Member of the Committee.
• If a Member after his election to the Committee is appointed a Minister, he ceases to be a Member of the Committee from the date of such appointment. The term of the Committee does not exceed one year.

The functions of the Committee on Public Undertakings are :-

(a) to examine the reports and accounts of Public Undertakings specified in the Fourth Schedule to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha ;

(b) to examine the reports, if any, of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on the Public Undertakings ;

(c) to examine, in the context of the autonomy and efficiency of the Public Undertakings whether the affairs of the Public Undertakings are being managed in accordance with sound business principles and prudent commercial practices ;

(d) to exercise such other functions vested in the Public Accounts Committee and the Estimates Committee in relation to the Public Undertakings as are not covered by clauses (a), (b) and (c) above and as may be allotted to the Committee by the Speaker from time to time.