Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury appointed PAC Chairman

The leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was appointed as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday.

In the last term, the post was held by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who in the recently concluded elections lost from Gulbarga constituency in Karnataka to BJP's Umesh Jadhav.

Chowdhury along with former Union Ministers Satyapal Singh and Jayant Sinha were elected as the members of PAC a few weeks ago.

The other members elected to the committee from Lok Sabha were -- 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 Lok Sabha and seven from Rajya Sabha. The term of office of members of the committee does not exceed one year at a time.

The Committee is conventionally headed by a member from the opposition party. 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.

The functions of the Committee, as enshrined in Rule 308(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, include examination of accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament for the expenditure of the Government of India, the annual finance accounts of the Government and such other accounts laid before the House as the Committee may think fit.