Committee on Public Undertakings
| Financial Standing Committee | |
|---|---|
| 16th Lok Sabha | |
| Founded | 1 May 1964 |
| Country |  India |
| Leadership | |
| Chaiperson | santosh Gangwar |
| Chairperson party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Appointer | Lok sabha Speaker |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 22 Lok Sabha : 15 Rajya Sabha : 7 |
| Political Parties | BJP (11) INC (2) |
| Election criteria | The members are elected every year from amongst its members of respective houses according to the principle of proportional representation. |
| Tenure | 1 Year |
| Jurisdiction | |
| Purpose | Examining the reports and accounts of the Public sector undertakings(PSUs) |
| Rules & Procedure | |
| Applicable rules | Rule 312A & 312B (page 115 - 116) Fourth Schedule (page 156) |
The Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) is a committee of selected members of parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India, for the purpose of examining the reports and accounts of the public sector undertakings (PSUs) as specified in the fourth schedule of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha. This committee along with the Public Accounts committee (PAC) and the Estimates committee (EC) are the three financial standing committees of the Parliament of India.
The committee consists of twenty-two members, fifteen elected by Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, and not more than seven members of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament. The members are elected every year from amongst its members of respective houses 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. If a member after his election to the committee becomes a Minister, he ceases to be a member from the date of such appointment.[1]
History[]
The first proposal for a separate committee had been raised by Lanka Sundaram in 1953, stating the inadequacies Public Accounts committee (PAC) and the Estimates committee (EC) with respect to public undertakings, but the then finance minister did not relent to that idea. In May 1956. Ashok Mehta also proposed that there should be a separate committee for public undertakings, however the then finance minister held the view that the PAC and the EC were sufficient to handle the work load. By 1957, the government had agreed to form a standing sub-committee of the EC on public undertakings. In 1958, the congress formed the V. K. Krishna Menon committee. which put forward a number of recommendations intended to reconcile the accountability of public undertakings to parliament while keeping their autonomy on one hand and also ensuring efficiency on the other.[2]
In the September of 1963, the then Minister of Commerce and Industry Nityanand Kanungo, put forward a motion in the Lok Sabha proposing the formation of a separate Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings. In pursuance of this motion the Committee on Public Undertakings was formed with effect from May 1, 1964.
Scope and Working[]
The functions of the Committee on Public Undertakings are
- To examine the reports and accounts of public undertakings specified in the fourth Schedule to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
- To examine the reports, if any, of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on the Public Undertakings.
- To examine, in the context of the autonomy and efficiency of the Public Undertakings whether the affairs of the Public Undertakings are being managed in accordance with sound business principles and prudent commercial practices.
The committee from time to time takes up for examination as such any PSU or subjects related to them as they may deem fit and which are within their terms of reference. The dep or Undertaking concerned is asked to furnish necessary material relating to those subjects for information of the Members of the Committee. The Committee may from time to time appoint one or more Study Groups for carrying out detailed examination of various subjects.
Current composition[]
Keys: BJP (11) INC (2) AIADMK (2) TDP (2) BJD (2) SAD (1) TRS (1) AITC (1) = 22 members
Party-wise membership of Committee on Public Undertakings
| Sr. No. | Portrait | Name | Constituency, state | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shanta Kumar[a] | Kangra, Himachal Pradesh | BJP | ||
| 2 | 
|
Lal Krishna Advani | Gandhinagar, Gujarat | ||
| 3 | Ramesh Bais | Raipur, Madhya Pradesh | |||
| 4 | Haribabu Kambhampati | Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh | |||
| 5 | Ajay Nishad | Muzaffarpur, Bihar | |||
| 6 | Prahlad Singh Patel | Damoh, Madhya Pradesh | |||
| 7 | Narendra Keshav Sawaikar | South Goa, Goa | |||
| 8 | Sushil Kumar Singh | Aurangabad, Bihar | |||
| 9 | Rameshwar Teli | Dibrugarh, Assam | |||
| 10 | Konakalla Narayana Rao | Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh | TDP | ||
| 11 | Saugata Roy | Dum Dum, West Bengal | AITC | ||
| 12 | G Hari | Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu | AIADMK | ||
| 13 | Ravneet Singh | Ludhiana, Punjab | INC | ||
| 14 | Vinod Kumar Boianapalli | Karimnagar, Telangana | TRS | ||
| 15 | Nagendra Pradhan | Sambalpur, Odisha | BJD | ||
| Notes | |||||
| |||||
| Sr. No. | Name | State Legislature | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samsheer Singh Manhas | Jammu & Kashmir | BJP | |
| 2 | Ramvichar Netam | Chattishgarh | ||
| 3 | Mohd. Ali Khan | Andhra Pradesh | INC | |
| 4 | Pratap Keshari Deb | Odisha | BJD | |
| 5 | Naresh Gujral | Punjab | SAD | |
| 6 | C. M. Ramesh | Andhra Pradesh | TDP | |
| 7 | A. K. Selvaraj | Tamil Nadu | AIADMK | |
List of Public Undertakings[]
The scope of COPU is limited to the undertakings specified in the fourth Schedule to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha. They are as follows :
| Part I | Part II | Part III |
|---|---|---|
| The Public Undertakings established by Central Acts | Every Government Company whose annual report
is placed before the Houses of Parliament under sub-section (1) of Section 619A of the Companies Act, 1956 |
|
Probes in recent years[]
BSNL Salary ratio (2014)[]
The Committee on Public Undertakings noted in its report: "The staff cost was about Rs.13,406 crore in 2011-12, that is almost 50 per cent of its revenue, which is abnormally on the higher side as compared to private companies whose expenditure is stated to be in the range of 5-10 per cent."[4]
ONGC Videsh Ltd (2014)[]
Based on the performance audit done by C&AG presented in report no. 28 for the year 2010-11, the COPU had the following findings -"Due to unrealistic estimation of reserves/production, OVL has suffered a huge loss of Rs.1182.14 crore during the period 2008-09 and 2009-10. Since OVL did not chose to farm-out part of its stake to a local partner, the entire loss has been borne out by it"[5] Following up in August 2015, COPU stated - "Except reiterating its earlier reply OVL has not offered any justification for its ill-conceived decision not to farm-out part of its stake in IEC to local Russian firms/ entities and its unrealistic estimation of oil reserves and production targets"[6]
Chairpersons[]
Chairpersons of the committee till date[]
| Sr. No. | Name | Term of office | Terms | Political party
(Alliance) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P. Govinda Menon | 1964-66 | 2 | INC | |
| 2 | Dwarka N. Tiwary | 1966-67 | 1 | JNP | |
| 3 | Surindra Nath Dwivedy | 1967-68 | 1 | PSP | |
| 4 | G. S. Dhillon | 1968-69 | 1 | INC | |
| 5 | Mansinhji Rana | 1969-72 | 3 | ||
| 6 | Subhadra Joshi | 1972-73 | 1 | ||
| 7 | Amrit Nahata | 1973 | partial | ||
| 8 | Nawal Kishore Sharma | 1973-76 | 3 | ||
| 9 | Darbara Singh | 1976-77 | 1 | ||
| 10 | Jyotirmoy Basu | 1977-79 | 2 | CPI(M) | |
| 11 | Bapu Kaldate | 1979-80 | 1 | JD | |
| 12 | Bansi Lal | 1980-82 | 2 | INC | |
| 13 | Madhusudan Vairale | 1982-85 | 3 | ||
| 14 | Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy | 1985-87 | 2 | ||
| 15 | Vakkom Purushothaman | 1987-90 | 3 | ||
| 16 | Basudeb Acharia | 1990-91 | 1 | CPI(M) | |
| 17 | A. R. Antulay | 1991-93 | 2 | INC | |
| 18 | Vilas Muttemwar | 1993-95 | 2 | ||
| 19 | Kamal Chaudhary | 1995-96 | 1 | ||
| 20 | G. Venkatswamy | 1996-98 | 2 | ||
| 21 | Manbendra Shah | 1998-99 | 1 | BJP | |
| 22 | Vijay Kumar Malhotra | 1999-2004 | 5 | ||
| 23 | Rupchand Pal | 2004-09 | 5 | CPI(M) | |
| 24 | V. Kishore Chandra Deo | 2009-11 | 2 | INC | |
| 25 | Jagdambika Pal | 2011-14 | 3 | ||
| 26 | Shanta Kumar | 2014-19 | 5 | BJP | |
| 27 | Meenakshi Lekhi | 2019-21 | 6 | ||
| 28 | Santosh Gangwar | 2021-incumbent | BJP | ||
Longest serving chairpersons of COPU[]
| Sr. No. | Name | Terms | Years | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vijay Kumar Malhotra | 5 | 1999-2004 | BJP | |
| 2 | Rupchand Pal | 5 | 2004-09 | CPI(M) | |
| 3 | Shanta Kumar | 5 | 2014-19 | BJP | |
Reports Published[]
The committee since inception has presented 604 reports till date. Of these, 301 are original Reports, and 303 are reports on action taken by the Government on the original reports of the committee. Out of 301 original reports, 37 are in the nature of horizontal studies on various aspects of working of the public undertakings.
See also[]
- 17th Lok Sabha
- Estimates Committee
- Public Accounts Committee (India)
- Standing Committee on Defence (India)
- Standing Committee on Finance
- List of Indian parliamentary committees
References[]
- ^ "Rules of Procedure and Conduct Loksabha - Page 115 (148)" (PDF).
- ^ "A Committee is Born" (PDF).
- ^ "Rules of Procedure and conduct Page 156 (189)" (PDF).
- ^ "BSNL's salary outgo rises to Rs 13,406 crore". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
- ^ "Parliamentary panel seeks review of ONGC Videsh's Imperial Energy acquisition". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
- ^ "Parliament Panel Raps OVL for Imperial Energy acquisition". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
External links[]
- Committees of the Parliament of India