The Parliament had recently appointed seven new Members of Parliament (MPs) to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill. Out of the total number, four have been appointed from Rajya Sabha and three from the Lok Sabha.
The appointments were made since many members of the Committee were recently inducted into the Union Council of Ministers, including the Chairman of the Committee Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi.
The motion in the Lok Sabha was introduced by the new JPC chairman PP Chaudhary and committee member Bhartruhari Mahtab. The motion passed in the Lok Sabha did not list the names of the Rajya Sabha’s MP. It recommended that the Rajya Sabha appoint four MP from the house and subsequently ‘communicate’ the appointments to the Lok Sabha.
The JPC has already got an extension till the winter session to file its report on the PDP Bill.
Significance of the JPC
The JPC was constituted in December 2019 to review the draft PDP bill under the chairmanship of Meenakshi Lekhi. She recently took an oath as Minister of State (MoS) for the External Affairs and Culture ministries.
Aa JPC can give non-enforceable recommendations to the government and subsequently publish reports on actions taken by the government which can be debated in Parliament.
New Appointees
Names of the new appointees from both the houses of the parliament are as follows:
Lok Sabha:
- Mr. Dayanidhi Maran
- Dr. Satya Pal Singh
- Ms. Aparajita Sarangi
Rajya Sabha:
- Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav
- Mr. Rakesh Sinha
- Dr. Vinay P. Sahasrabuddhe
- Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi
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