Bhubaneswar: The Central government Friday night announced the constitution of various parliamentary panels and standing committees for the newly constituted 17th Lok Sabha. After the Lok Sabha Secretariat updated the details of the same, it was found that two crucial parliamentary panels, the standing committees on finance and external affairs, which were headed by Congress MPs in previous Lok Sabha are now chaired by BJP MPs.
As many as 28 MPs of Odisha, both from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have found place in various panels and Standing Committees.
Senior BJD leader and Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab has been appointed as the Chairman of the Committee on Labour.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi who was a member of the panel on External Affairs has now been moved to the parliamentary panel on Defence, which is headed by BJP MP Jual Oram. BJP's Nitish Ganga Deb and BJD's Rajashree Mallick have also been appointed as members of the Committee on Defence.
The complete list is as follows:
- Jual Oram – Chairman, Committee on Defence
- Bhartruhari Mahtab – Chairman, Committee on Labour
- Nitish Ganga Deb, Rajashree Mallick – Member, Committee on Defence
- Pinaki Mishra, Amar Patnaik – Member, Finance Committee
- Aparajita Sarangi – Member, Committee on Urban Development
- Achyuta Samanta – Member, Committee on External Affairs
- Ramesh Majhi and Prasanna Acharya – Member, Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture
- Suresh Pujari – Member, Committee on Personnel, Public Grievance, Law And Justice
- Basanta Panda, Prashanta Nanda – Member, Committee on Coal and Steel
- Mahesh Sahoo – Member, Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests
- Bishweswar Tudu, Ranjib Biswal – Member, Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers
- Narendra Kumar Swain – Member, Committee on Water Resources
- Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, Anubhav Mohanty – Member, Committee on Railways
- Chandra Sekhar Sahu – Member, Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas
- Pramila Bisoyi, Saptagiri Ulaka – Member, Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and PDS
- Sarmistha Sethi – Member, Committee on Home Affairs
- Chandrani Murmu, Sasmit Patra – Member, Committee on Human Resources Development
- N Bhaskar Rao and Ashwini Vaishnav – Member, Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forest
- Manjulata Mandal – Member, Committee on Commerce
It is to be noted that the standing committees are allocated by Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman on the recommendation of the government.