Rajya Sabha MP Bhubaneswar Kalita has been appointed as the Chairman of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

This comes after the government officially constituted Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees for the 2024-2025 on Thursday. This will come into effect on 26 September 2024.

Taking to platform ‘X’ today, MP Kalita expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the entire BJP leadership for his appointment.

“I'm grateful to @narendramodi ji, @AmitShah ji, @JPNadda ji, @KirenRijiju ji and entire @BJP4India leadership for appointing me as Chairman of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment Forests and Climate Change,” read his post on ‘X’.

It may be mentioned that, each committee comprises members from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Among the 24 department-related standing committees, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will chair 11, while its allies will lead four. The Congress has been allocated chairmanship of four committees, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) each received two, and the Samajwadi Party has one committee to chair. 

On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Congress leader, has been appointed as a member of the Committee on Defence. Meanwhile, BJP MP Kangana Ranaut has also been named a member of the Committee on Communications and Information Technology.