Rajya Sabha Panel Of Vice-Chairpersons Now Has 50% Women MPs

Speaking on the first day of the special session of Parliament, Dhankhar said the number of woman MPs in the panel might go higher in future.

Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Monday that he had reconstituted the panel of vice-chairpersons with 50 per cent of women MPs and their representation might be higher in times to come, ANI reported. Four women parlamentarians are a part of the eight-member panel.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Kanta Kardam, Sumitra Balmik, Geeta alias Chandraprabha and Biju Janata Dal's Mamata Mohanta are part of the panel of Rajya Sabha vice-chairpersons, reported news agency ANI.

Making the announcement in the Rajya Sabha on the first day of the special session of Parliament, Dhankhair said, "The House members are informed that the panel of vice-chairpersons has been reconstituted with effect from September 13, 2023. Honourable members will be happy to note that 50% of the vice chairpersons happen to be women."

The other members of the panel are Congress' Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Aam Aadmi Party's Narain Dass Gupta, YSRCP's V Vijayasai Reddy and Santanu Sen from Trinamool Congress. 

The vice-chairpersons are eligible to preside over the House in case of the absence of the chairman or deputy chairman.

The special session of Parliament will be held from September 18-22.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Hails G20 Summit Success

In his address to the Rajya Sabha members, Dhankhar hailed the success of G20 Summit, which saw the members reaching a consensus on issues like Ukraine war, and said that the launch of the India, Middle East, Europe economic corridor and Biofuel Alliance had sowed the seeds for a connected future in which India would play an important role.  

The RS Chairman also said India as G20 president was able to acheive new milestones in setting up new working groups on women and disaster reduction and also new group on startups.

He also hailed India' attempts to meet climate goals and said the country's climate leadership was visible with the adoption of high-level principles of life on building pro-planet people.