Vice President Dhankhar’s personal staff in 20 committees, opposition raised questions

Eight officers in Rajya Sabha Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar's office have been attached to 12 committees and all eight parliamentary standing committees in the upper house.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar has assigned eight officers in his office to various standing committees and other parliamentary committees under the jurisdiction of the upper house of parliament. Dhankhar's Officers on Special Duty (OSD) Rajesh N. Naik, Akhil Choudhary, Abhyuday Singh Shekhawat, Dinesh D, Kaustubh Sudhakar Bhalekar, Private Secretary (PS) Sujeet Kumar, Additional Private Secretary (APS) Sanjay Verma and Senior PS Aditi Chaudhary were attached to a total of 12 committees and all eight standing parliamentary committees within the upper house.

Former Lok Sabha general secretary P Sreedharan said the appointments are "unusual" as parliamentary committees are usually assisted by officials from the parliamentary secretariat and are selected based on their skills and knowledge of the field. “It is unusual because these officers are appointed as personal staff in the office of the Hon’ble Vice President while there is a separate branch that deals with secretarial assistance to the House panels,” he added.

An internal order issued on March 7 said: "The following officers have been attached to the said committees against their names with immediate effect and until further orders." According to the order, Rajesh N Naik was attached to the Trade Advisory Committee, the General Purposes Committee and the Standing Committee on Home Affairs. Sujit Kumar, PS for Dhankhar, has been on the panel of IT management, privileges and standing committees on commerce, science and technology, while Bhalekar is on the committees on transport, tourism and rules.

The new appointments cover all 12 committees and 8 standing committees of the Rajya Sabha related to the department. All these panels come under the jurisdiction of the Rajya Sabha. Apart from these 20 panels, there are joint committees consisting of members from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, ad hoc committees and joint committees formed for specific issues. The senior official added that the new appointments will enable the officials to attend any meeting of their respective committee.