Standing Committees of Parliament

In a democratic country, the work of Legislature is very important. In 90s, Standing Committees was established for effective and smooth functioning of the Parliament. These committees plays excellent role in organising the work of legislature in effective manner. These Standing Committees can be called Mini Parliament and their work is dedicated to harness the gap between common people and the Government. These committees check the laws made by Parliament and if required suggest necessary changes in that law. These committees takes public opinion into consideration as well as the advices of expert. They make sure that law should not have any adverse effect on the society. Recently new Standing Committees are set up and Members of the Parliament have been assigned new responsibilities. On September 13, 2019 Lok Sabha Secretariat has notified all 24 Committees of the new changes. BJP MPs have been assigned responsibility of 13 Committees and Congress MPs have been assigned responsibility of 3 Committees. These committees are supposed to keep an eye on the work of executive and to reduce the excessive work load of the Legislature. Anti Defection laws are not applied on these committees. This is reason behind the independent working of these committees. These committees are expected to work above party politics. Standing Committees were established in 1993. The tenure of Head of each committee is 1 year. Lok Sabha has 16 Standing Committees and Rajya Sabha has 8 Standing Committees. Till 13th Lok Sabha there were 45 members in which 30 were from Lok Sabha and 15 were from Rajya Sabha. In 2004, this structure was changed and total number of members was 31. In this 21 were from Lok Sabha and 10 were from Rajya Sabha. At present total number of Standing Committees are 24 in which 16 members are appointed from Lok Sabha and 8 members are appointed from Rajya Sabha. Lok Sabha Standing committee members are appointed by Speaker of Lok sabha and members of Rajya Sabha Standing Committee are appointed by Chairman of Rajya Sabha.

Financial Committees:

There are 3 types of Financial Committees namely Estimate Committee, Public Accounts Committee and Committee on Public Sector Undertakings.

Estimate Committee: In Estimate Committee there are 30 members. All members of the committee are Lok Sabha MPs. The tenure of the committee is 1 year. This committee works on effectiveness of policy and the areas where Government need to spend money.

Public Accounts Committee: In Public Accounts Committee total number of members are 22 in which 15 are from Lok Sabha and 7 from Rajya Sabha. The tenure of this committee is 1 year. From 1967, there is tradition to appoint leader from opposition to be head of this committee. This committee works on the report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

Committee on Public Sector Undertakings: This committee also has 22 members, 15 from Lok Sabha and 7 from Rajya Sabha. The tenure of this committee is 1 year. The head of the committee is appointed on advice of Speaker of Lok Sabha. This committee work on the functioning of Government Companies.

There are some special committees formed from time to time for specific purpose. These committees are known as Ad Hoc Committees. These committees comes into existence by special motion and subsequently dissolved when work is done. This is not permanent Committee.