Parliament's 49 standing committees and eight ad hoccommittees have come to a standstill because the Congress has not recommendednames of its MPs for induction. These committees are constituted every yearbefore July 31, but Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Rajya Sabha ChairmanHamid Ansari are helpless to constitute them for want of the Congress list.
Enquiries in the Congress parliamentary office showed thatthe party leadership has put on hold the list because of the impendingreshuffle of the union ministry since anyone becoming the minister cannot be amember of any parliamentary committee.
There are 16 departmental standing committees constituted bythe Speaker and eight by the Rajya Sabha chairman, while there are 17 otherstanding committees and eight ad hoc committees.
The annual reconstitution of the three financial committees-- Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee and Public UndertakingCommittee -- was, however, completed by the Speaker in the month of May.
The Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman are worried that ahost of legislations and other work assigned to the standing committees willget delayed because they remained unconstituted so far. A Constitution Bill forreservation to SCs/STs in promotion in the government services that wasintroduced by the Government in the Rajya Sabha to satisfy BSP supremo Mayawatiwas referred to the Select Committee, but it remains stuck since this committeeis also yet to be constituted, sources in the Rajya Sabha Secretariatdisclosed.
