V­P appoints own staff on House committees

V­P appoints own staff on House committees

Subject : Polity

Section: Parliament

Concept :

• Eight members of the personal staff of Vice­President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar have been appointed to 20 committees that come within the ambit of the Upper House.
• There is no past precedent of personal staff working on the committees.
• Four of these staffers are employed with the Chairman’s office and four of them with the Vice­President’s Secretariat.
• Each Standing Committee has an official of the rank of Additional Secretary or Joint Secretary assisting in its functioning who also attends the meetings, which are strictly confidential.

Parliamentary Committee

• India’s Parliament has multiple types of committees. They can be differentiated on the basis of their work, their membership and the length of their tenure.
• However, broadly there are two types of Parliamentary Committees– Standing Committees and Ad Hoc Committees.
• The Standing Committees are permanent (constituted every year or periodically) and work on a continuous basis.
• Standing Committees can be classified into the following six categories:
  • Financial Committees
  • Departmental Standing Committees
  • Committees to Enquire
  • Committees to Scrutinise and Control
  • Committees Relating to the Day-to-Day Business of the House
  • House-Keeping Committees or Service Committees
  • While the Ad Hoc Committees are temporary and cease to exist on completion of the task assigned to them.
  • They are further subdivided into Inquiry Committees and Advisory Committees.
  • The principal Ad hoc Committees are the Select and Joint Committees on Bills.