NEW DELHI: Weeks after the rejig of the Union Cabinet, the government has revamped the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) and other cabinet committees, bringing in new faces and experience. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was the only minister to be elevated into Cabinet rank in the reshuffle, has been included into the CCPA.
Consumer Affairs Minister Ramvilas Paswan and new Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth kumar have also been included into the 11-member committee. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad are the other members.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was recently given independent charge of the Minority Affairs Ministry replacing Najma Heptulla, has been included as special invitee in the committee along with MoS Agriculture S S Ahluwalia and MoS Law P P Chaudhary. Textile Minister Smriti Irani has been dropped as a special invitee.
The composition of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, headed by the Prime Minister, has been expanded and now comprises 14 members as against 11 earlier. New members are Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and Health Minister J P Nadda.
Composition of the Cabinet Committee on Security or CCS and Appointments Committee of the Cabinet ACC remain unchanged.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has also been expanded to include 13 members instead of 11 members. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Ananth Kumar have been included in the committee while D V Sadananda Gowda, who was shifted from the Law Ministry to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, has been dropped from the committee. The special invitees to the committee are Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.