Women to helm only 2 of 24 House panels

Dola Sen of TMC will chair the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Commerce, DMK's Kanimozhi Consumer Affairs OF the 24 Parliamentary Standing Committees formed under the NDA government, only two will be headed by women.

- RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR

The Commerce Committee will be chaired by the TMC's Dola Sen and the Consumer Affairs Committee by DMK's Kanimozhi.

Eleven of the 24 Standing Committees, announced on Thursday late evening, will be chaired by the BJP, nine by the Opposition parties, and four by the NDA allies. The Congress has been granted Chairs of four committees, while two each have gone to DMK and TMC, and one to the Samajwadi Party. NDA allies JD(U), TDP, NCP and Shiv Sena have been given a Chair each. The BJP has managed to keep the chairmanships of the key committees on Home, Defence, Finance and IT. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is a member of the Committee on Defence.

The Committee on Home Affairs will be chaired by BJP's Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, and the one on Defence will be headed by BJP's Radha Mohan Singh. Bhartruhari Mahtab will head the Committee on Finance. CM Ramesh will head the panel on Railways and Nishikant Dubey the one on Dola Sen Kanimozhi Communications and Information Technology.