lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has appointed BJP’s veteran leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Shanta Kumar as chairpersons of Estimates Committee and Committee on Public Undertakings respectively. Senior leader lK Advani is also a member of the panel on Public Undertakings.
Joshi took charge of the Committee on August 19 after it was constituted on August 14. With former Union Minister KV Thomas from Congress taking over as the chairman of PAC, the three key financial committees of Parliament have been constituted.The Committee on Estimates scrutinises the functioning of government ministries and departments in terms of expenditure and utilisation of funds. It also suggests alternative policies in order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration. The 30-member Committee on Estimates has members from the lok Sabha alone.
The Committee on Public Undertakings consists of 22 lok Sabha and seven Rajya Sabha members. It examines reports and accounts of public undertakings as well as CAG reports on PSUs.
By convention, while PAC is headed by a senior lok Sabha member from the Opposition, the Committee on Estimates and Committee on Public Undertakings are headed by senior lok Sabha MPs from the ruling party. For the past four years, the PAC was headed by Joshi. The panel which scrutinizes the CAG report often locked horns with government on its findings on 2G scam, Coalgate and reports related to defence and finance sector.