Tharoor continues as head of Par panel on IT; Harsimrat Badal new external affairs committee member
New Delhi: The parliamentary panel on information technology will continue to be chaired by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose decisions to summon Facebook executives and take up the suspension of 4G internet services in J&K had drawn criticism from the committee's BJP members, some of whom had even sought his ouster.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in consultation with Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday announced the composition of several reconstituted parliamentary standing committees, with former Union Minister and Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal being made a member of the panel on external affairs.
Badal recently resigned from the Union Cabinet in protest against the farm bills.
According to the list released by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Tharoor will continue to chair the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology.
A bitter slugfest had broken out between Tharoor and BJP MP and member of the parliamentary panel of information technology Nishikant Dubey over the suspension of 4G services in Jammu and Kashmir and summoning of Facebook executives over alleged misuse of the social media platform for hate-speech.
Besides Tharoor, various other Congress leaders who were critical of the government as chairperson of their respective parliamentary panels have been retained.
Congress leader Anand Sharma will continue to chair the parliamentary panel on home affairs and Jairam Ramesh will remain the head of the panel on environment and science and technology.
The chairperson of all parliamentary standing committees have been retained.
YSR Congress's Vijaysai Reddy has been reappointed the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav of Health, TRS's K Keshava Rao of Industry, TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab of Labour.
DMK's Kanimozhi will continue to lead the panel on chemicals and fertilizers and JD(U)'s Rajiv Ranjan Singh will head the panel on energy.
All remaining chairpersons of the parliamentary standing committees, most of who are from the BJP, have also not been changed.
The department-related parliamentary standing committees are constituted for a period of one year and comprise 21 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha.
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Udupi: Two men from Belthangady awarded life imprisonment for attempt to murder a woman in 2022
Udupi: Two men from Belthangady have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Udupi for attempting to murder a woman in Manchikumeri in 2022.
The sentenced men, Mithun and Nagesh Poojary, are learned to have attempted to murder Sumathi, wife of Ramanath Rai, a resident of Manchikumeri, who had a Nandini Milk Parlour at Tiger Circle, Manipal.
On February 18, 2022, Sumathi was reportedly alone at home when, at around 7 pm, Mithun, learned to be her nephew, and his friend Poojary came to the house. As Sumathi opened the door, the duo barged in and tried to strangulate her with an intention of murdering her. Sumathi reportedly lost consciousness under the attack.
The men packed her body in a sack and were then putting the sack into a suitcase to carry the body out, when they noticed that Rai and neighbours had arrived. They are learned to have opened the door when Rai knocked the door and then tried to escape. They were, however, caught by the neighbours and handed over to the police.
Further, Sumathi was found by the group in an unconscious state inside the suitcase in the house. She was rushed to the Manipal Hospital and learned to have recovered after a week of medical treatment.
A case had been registered at the Manipal Police Station.
The Udupi Principal District and Sessions Court judge Kiran S Gangannavar, who heard the case, has declared both Mithun and Poojary guilty in the case. He has awarded them life imprisonment, fined them Rs 20,000 each and, under Column 325, sentenced them to rigorous imprisonment of 5 years and fined them Rs 5,000 each.
Judge Gangannavar has directed that, of the fine, Rs 45,000 be handed to the attack victim Sumathi as relief.
Jayarama Shetty represented the government as Public Prosecutor.
