Ahead of the Winter Session, Rajya Sabha Chairman directs to reconstitute eight Upper House panels

New Delhi, October 31: Ahead of the Winter Session of the Rajya Sabha, Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday reconstituted eight House committees after laying down the 15 reform charters for better functioning of the House.

 

Naidu directed RJD MP Manoj Jha to replace Narayan Lal Panchariya of the BJP as chairman of the Ethics Committee. Meanwhile, Prasanna Acharya of the BJD was appointed in place of BJP's Prabhat Jha as chairman of the Petitions Committee.

 

 

Expressing concern over the functioning of Parliamentary institutions in the country and erosion of public trust in them, Naidu had unveiled a 15-point reform charter as the basis for a new political normal to enable effective functioning of Parliament and State Legislatures.

 

Responding to the concerns over stifling of the freedom of expression of the legislators further to issuance of 'Whip', Naidu called for a review of the same so as to enable reasonable degree of dissent without impacting the stability of the government.

 

The Chairman of Rajya Sabha also advocated a thorough review of the Anti Defection Law to rectify the grey areas like incentivising legislators to resort to actions inviting expulsion from the party besides providing for time bound disposal of defection cases by the Presiding Officer.

 

Emphasising the need for well thought out and focused legislation with the participation of stakeholders, Naidu proposed a detailed framework based pre and post Legislative Impact Assessment. He stressed that every legislative proposal shall incorporate a detailed account of social, economic, environmental and administrative impact for wider awareness and subsequent assessment of the effect of legislation on ground.