NEW DELHI: After a long spell of lassitude, former UPA ministers have found new energy as chiefs of parliamentary standing committees. Going by the topics they are choosing for examination by their committees, they might give a hard time to the new government.
Former minister and former chairman of Administrative Reforms Commission M Veerappa Moily, now as chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance, has selected measures taken so far to recover black money as one of his subjects. It is another matter that the UPA Government had also moved to get black money back but did little.
Bringing back black money stashed abroad in 100 days was one of the BJP’s biggest planks during the Lok Sabha polls. Now, Moily will ask the government what measures it has taken to get the ill-gotten money back.
The other topics on Moily’s radar are Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, an assessment of Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme and the role of FDI in various sectors. Through these issues the Moily-led panel would try to corner the government, in the same manner the BJP MP-led committees had done during the previous Lok Sabha.
Another former minister K V Thomas, who is chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has wanted it to examine the PPP projects in Indian Railways and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) based on the CAG report No.6 of 2013. After NDA government raised a strong pitch for PPP in the Rail Budget, the Railways Ministry had prepared a fresh model of PPP pacts.
Former minister of science and technology Ashwani Kumar now heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forest. Kumar, who also served as minister of earth sciences, is preparing for the committee’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir after the relief and rescue operations are over to assess the ecological aspect of the floods there.
“We want to see if there is climate change aspect to the Jammu and Kashmir floods. We will meet people, officials and experts to understand the ecological and environmental aspect of the floods,” he said.
Availability of drinking water for all is another issue in the agenda of the Kumar-led committee.
Former minister E M Sudarsana Natchippan, who is heading the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, has the mandate to submit report on the Tribunals, Appellate Tribunals and other Authorities (Conditions of Service) Bill, 2014.
Former railways minister Dinesh Trivedi is back to examine the issues of the official carrier as the new chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways.