Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs meets, adopts yearly agenda

New Delhi [India], October 7 (ANI): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday chaired the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and informed that an agenda for the year had been adopted.
Tharoor stated that he doesn't have the liberty to speak about the agenda until the Speaker of the Lok Sabha Om Birla approves it.
"We have just adopted the agenda for the year. Until the Speaker approves it, I am not at liberty to talk about it...The agenda for the year has been adopted by the committee for submission to the Speaker," Tharoor told reporters here.
The committee, led by Congress leader Tharoor, started its meeting at the Parliament House Annexe Extension Building (EEPHA) at 11:30 am today to discuss the "consideration of Memorandum No. 1 regarding Selection of Subjects for examination by the Committee during the term 2025-26."
This is the first sitting of the Committee since it was reconstituted by the Lok Sabha Speaker October 2, for a period of one year.
The committee consists of a total of 30 members with 20 from Lok Sabha, and 10 from Rajya Sabha.
Apart from Tharoor, the members include D K Aruna, Vijay Baghel, Mitesh Patel Bakabhai, Abhishek Banerjee, Arun Govil, Deepender Singh Hooda, Naveen Jindal, Navaskani K, Brijendra Singh Ola, Asaduddin Owaisi, Sanatan Pandey, Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Avinash Reddy, Aparajita Sarangi,i Arvind Ganpat Sawant, Praniti Sushilkumar Shinde, Bansuri Swaraj, Akshay Yadav from the Lok Sabha.
Rajya Sabha members, Ayodhya Rami Reddy Alla, John Brittas, Raghav Chadha, Sagarika Ghose, K Laxman, Satnam Singh Sandhu, Rajeev Shukla, A D Singh, Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh, Sudhanshu Trivedi.
The Departmentally-related Parliamentary Standing Committee (DRSC) on External Affairs was first constitutes on April 8, 1993, and later restricted in 2004, which increased the committee strength from 17 to 24.
The Committee considers the Demands for Grants of the concerned Ministries/Departments and makes a report on the same to the House, examines bills related to the ministry and referred to them, considers annual reports, and considers national basic long-term policy documents presented to the House.
The Committee could also take up detailed examination of various other topics if time permits, such as Passport facilities, situation in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Northern areas, Indian Council for Cultural relation, and India's role in United Nations, particularly the claim for permanent membership to Security Council, India-Pakistan relations, among multiple other things.
In the previous meetings, the committee considered the subjects regarding all aspects of the conditions and welfare of the Indian Diaspora Overseas, including NRIs, PIOs, and OCIs.
The Committee last met on September 23, where they were briefed by the representatives of the Ministry of External Affairs on the subject 'India-Sri Lanka Relations and the way ahead' and also the briefing by MEA representatives meeting with the US Congresspersons and Delegation.
The Lok Sabha on October 2 had reconstituted multiple parliamentary standing committees for a period of one year and constituted two select committees, the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill and another on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill. (ANI)