Congress leader KC Venugopal to become chairman of Public Accounts Committee; fourth Malayali to chair PAC

NEW DELHI: AICC general secretary and Alappuzha MP KC Venugopal will be the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the 18th Lok Sabha. Speaker Om Birla accepted the Congress recommendation. There will be an order regarding the same soon. He is the fourth Malayali to hold this position after John Mathai (1948-1949), CM Stephen (1977-1978) and Prof KV Thomas (2014-2016).

22 MPs, including 15 Lok Sabha members and seven Rajya Sabha members, were elected to the PAC unopposed. The Lok Sabha MPs have seven BJP, three Congress, and one each of Trinamool, DMK, Samajwadi, Jana Sena and TDP. The chairmanship is given to the main opposition party.
PAC is the parliamentary committee that audits the income and expenditure accounts of the central government. UPA-era PAC reports on the 2G spectrum, the Commonwealth Games scam, and the coal scam had made headlines.