Adhir, Sinha elected as members of Public Accounts Committee

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and former union ministers Satya Pal Singh and Jayant Sinha have been elected as members of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) from Lok Sabha with nine of 15 members belonging to the BJP.

The other members elected to the committee from Lok Sabha are T R Baalu (DMK), Subhash Chandra Baheria, Sudheer Gupta, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Ajay (Teni) Misra, Jagadambika Pal, Vishnu Dayal Ram, Ram Kripal Yadav (all BJP), Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD), Rahul Ramesh Shewale (Shiv Sena), Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JD-U) and Balashowry Vallabbhaneni (YSRC Party).

The PAC has 15 members from both Lok Sabha and seven from Rajya Sabha. It will be formally constituted after the Rajya Sabha sends names of its members.

The committee is conventionally headed by a member from the opposition. It was in 1967 that the Lok Sabha Speaker first appointed a member of opposition as Chairman of the committee and the practice has continued.

Chowdhury, who is a leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, is the lone member of the party in the PAC from the House. The term of office of members of the Committee does not exceed one year at a time.

Congress leader in the previous Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge had also been chairman of the PAC.

The functions of the committee include an examination of accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament for the expenditure of the government, the annual financial accounts of the government and other accounts laid before the House as the committee may think fit.