Estimates Committee

The Estimates Committee (India) is a committee of selected members of parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India (the Lok Sabha), for the purpose of scrutinising the functioning of government ministries and departments in terms of expenditure and utilisation of funds. It also suggests alternative policies in order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration. It also examines whether the finances are laid out within the limits of the policy implied in the estimates and also to suggest the form in which the estimates shall be presented to Parliament. This committee along with the Public Accounts committee(PAC) and Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) are the three financial standing committees of the Parliament of India.

The committee consists of thirty members, all elected from Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. The members are elected every year from amongst its members of the Lok Sabha, according to the principle of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. The chairperson is appointed by the Lok Sabha speaker. The term of office of the members is one year. A minister is not eligible to become a member of the committee or continue to serve after appointment as a minister. There are no members from Rajya Sabha

Currently the committee is headed by Sanjay Jaiswal from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

History Although the committee existed pre-independence, post independence, it was established following directives by John Mathai. In his speech presenting the budget of 1950–51, Mathai outlined the role that had been envisaged, saying

Initially the membership of the committee was limited to 25 members, however, in 1956, the membership was expanded to 30 members.

Scope and working The functions of the committee as enshrined in Rule 310 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha are:

To report what economies, improvements in organisation, efficiency or administrative reform, consistent with the policy underlying the estimates may be effected To suggest alternative policies in order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration To examine whether the money is well laid out within the limits of the policy implied in the estimates To suggest the form in which the estimates shall be presented to Parliament.

The committee from time to time selects the estimates pertaining to a ministry or department of the central government or such of the statutory and other bodies of the central government as may seem fit to the committee. The committee also examines matters of special interest which may arise in the course of its work or which are specially referred to it by the house or by the speaker. The committee calls for preliminary materials from the relevant bodies in regard to the subjects selected for examination and also comments from non-officials connected with the subjects for the use of the members of the committee.

The committee does not exercise its functions in relation to such public sector undertakings as are allotted to the Committee on Public Undertakings by the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of Lok Sabha or by the speaker.

Current composition Keys: = 30 members +30 members from 18th Lok Sabha; tenure – 2024-25Sr. No.PortraitNameConstituency, stateParty1Sanjay JaiswalPaschim Champaran, BiharBJP2Brijmohan AgrawalRaipur, Chhattisgarh3Pradan BaruahLakhimpur, Assam4P. P. ChaudharyPali, Rajasthan5Devusinh ChauhanKheda, Gujarat6Sangeeta Kumari Singh DeoBolangir, Odisha7Sudhir GuptaMandsaur, Madhya Pradesh8Manish JaiswalHazaribagh, Jharkhand9Naveen JindalKurukshetra, Haryana 10Jugal Kishore SharmaJammu, Jammu and Kashmir11P. C. MohanBangalore Central, Karnataka12Bishnu Pada RayAndaman and Nicobar Islands13Bhola SinghBulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh 14Manoj TiwariNorth East Delhi, Delhi15Rajiv Pratap RudySaran, Bihar16Charanjit Singh ChanniJalandhar, PunjabINC17Deepender Singh HoodaRohtak, Haryana18M. K. RaghavanKozhikode, Kerala19Kumari SeljaSirsa, Haryana20V. VaithilingamPuducherry21Awadhesh PrasadFaizabad, Uttar PradeshSP22Iqra ChoudharyKairana, Uttar Pradesh23Kalyan BanerjeeSerampore, West Bengal AITC24Dayanidhi MaranChennai Central, Tamil NaduDMK25B. K. ParthasarathiHindupur, Andhra PradeshTDP26Arvind Ganpat SawantMumbai South, MaharashtraSS (UBT)27Y. S. Avinash ReddyKadapa, Andhra PradeshYSRCP28Rajkumar SangwanBaghpat, Uttar PradeshRLD29M. Mallesh BabuKolar, KarnatakaJDS30Indra Hang SubbaSikkimSKMNotes

Sub-committees Currently there are two sub-committees within the estimates committee. They are as follows: +Sub-Committees of Public Accounts Committee IndiaSr. No.Sub-committeeDate constitutedPortraitConvenerPortraitAlternate convener1Sub-Committee – I Drought situation in the country pertaining to the Ministry of Agriculture

and Farmers Welfare25 June 2018Sanjay Shamrao DhotreBhagirath Prasad2Sub-Committee - II Education with special reference to the recent development

regarding autonomy in Education25 June 2018Rajesh PandeyArvind Ganpat Sawant

Current subjects of examination By the press release circulated on 17 May 2018, the committee released the subjects that it has selected for examination during the year 2018-19 Subjects selected for examination by the committee for the year 2018-19 Import of Uranium for Nuclear Plants Subsidising of Fertilizers Mining Activities and Environment Budgetary Reforms Archives - Museums PNG Network Public Distribution System Education

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana Drought situation in the Country Impact of Mega Projects on Ecology Botanical Survey of India and Botanical Gardens Preparedness of Armed Forces – Defence Production and Procurement Employment Generation and Role of MSME Promotion of Yoga and Naturopathy Rural Housing Fund Amenities/Facilities at Public Places for persons with disabilities and Senior Citizens Estimates and Functioning of National Highways Estimates and Policy Aspects of the Department of Space Estimates and Policy Aspects of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region Estimates and Policy Aspects of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries Estimates and Policy Aspects of the Ministry of Earth Sciences Review of Major and Medium Ports 23. Estimates and Review of Tourism Ministry Management and Protection of Bird Sanctuaries and National Parks Performance of the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Minority Affairs Collection and Utilisation of various kinds of Cess Formulation of Standards for Edible Oil Upgradation of Indian Post Offices Enforcement Directorate and Recovery of Black Money Swantantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, 1980 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojna Need for alternate cropping patterns in drought affected areas in India Measuring Growth, Employment and Incomes Review of Imports, Exports and Balance of Payments Redevelopment Plan of Government Colonies Review of Functioning of CGHS Real Estate Regulatory Mechanism Encroachment of Public Land for Commercial Activities Electrification of Trains Review of Infrastructural Projects in various Holy Cities Land Policy for Non-Agricultural Lands 46. Border Area Development Programme

Probes in recent years

Ganga rejuvenation (2016) The committee noted in its May 2016 report that the river Ganga has been declared one of the ten most polluted rivers of the world. The committee outlined the gist of numerous recommendations as

In view of the incalculable damage caused to the "Nirmalta" and "Aviralta" of the river due to continued emptying of untreated sewage and industrial pollutants into the Ganga despite the efforts made under Ganga Action Plan –I&II; excessive use of chemical fertilizers in the Ganga basin leading to disposal of high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus which eventually drains into surface and subsurface water which is part of the Ganga river system and the multiplicity of authorities wanting in synergy, the Committee recommend that an overarching and empowered authority be set up for securing the 'nirmalta' and 'aviralta' and rejuvenation of the Ganga without further delay.

Indian activist G. D. Agrawal died at the age of 86, following a 15-week hunger strike aimed at protesting the state of the Ganges river. He was a former professor of environmental engineering at IIT Kanpur.

Banking sector NPAs (2018)

The supreme court in 2016 took suo muto cognisance of reports of bad debts asking RBI to share publicly names of all defaulters who owe over , since in 2015 the top ten public sector banks had written off . As of December 2017, this toxic debt problem worsened as it touched with public sector banks(PSBs) accounting for over 86% of the pie roughly In September 2018, the Joshi led committee sent notices to the coal and power ministries asking for explanations on mounting NPAs in the sectors.

GDP norms issue (2018) The committee noted in its report titled "Measuring growth, employment and income" that there are several parameters that need to be factored into the calculation of the GDP, like indicators to gauge the environmental resource decay and replenishment efforts made to compensate the loss concluding that - " The committee strongly recommends the government to have mechanisms by coming up with new measures of GDP estimation and statistical measurement of other socio-economic factors "

Chairpersons

Chairpersons of the committee (1950–present) Sr. No. PortraitNameTerm of officeTermsPolitical party (Alliance)1 M. A. Ayyangar1950-544INC2 Balwantray G. Mehta1954-5953 H.C. Dasappa1959-6344 Arun C. Guha1963-6745 P. Venkatasubbaiah1967-6926 M. Thirumala Rao1969-7127Kamal Nath Tewari1971-7438R K. Sinha1974-7629 Bhagwat Jha Azad1976-77110 Satyendra Narayan Sinha1977-79211Baldev Prakash1979partialJP12 S.B.P. Pattabhi Rama Rao1980-822INC13 Bansi Lal1982-85314 Chintamani Panigrahi1985-86115Chandra Tripathi1987-88116 Asutosh Laha1988-89117 Jaswant Singh1990-911BJP18 Manoranjan Bhakta1991-932INC19Krupasindhu Bhoi1993-95220S.B. Sidnal1995-96121Rupchand Pal1996-982CPI(M)22Madhukar Sarpotdar1998-991SS23Ummareddy Venkateswarlu1999-20045INC24C. Kuppuswami2004-095DMK25 Francisco Sardinha2009-145INC26 Murli Manohar Joshi2014-195BJP27 Girish Bapat2019-24528 Sanjay Jaiswal2024-incumbent1

Longest serving chairpersons of committee on Estimates Sr. No.NameTermsYearsParty1Balwantray G. Mehta1954-595INC2Ummareddy Venkateswarlu1999-200453C. Kuppuswami2004-095DMK4Francisco Sardinha2009-145INC5Murli Manohar Joshi2014-195BJP6M. A. Ayyangar1950-544INC

Reports published As part of its oversight process the committee has published quite a number of reports over the course of its existence. The committee has published a total of 1118 reports from 1950 to 2018. Out of these, 624 are the original reports and 494 are reports on action taken by the government on corresponding reports of the committee.

Estimates Committee

Bron en licentie