LS refers Data Protection Bill to joint panel of Parl

New Delhi: Amid Opposition's claims that it breached personal privacy, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday referred the Personal Data Protection Bill to a joint select committee.

Communication and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while moving a resolution in the House, said the Bill may be referred to a joint committee of the House. The resolution was passed by voice vote.

The panel will have 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. The Upper House will give names of the members it wants to send to the panel.

Reading out names, he said, the panel would include Meenakashi Lekhi, S S Ahluwalia, P P Chaudhary, Sanjay Jaiswal, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Kirit Solanki, Heena Gavit, Tejasvi Surya, Rajiv Rajan Singh, Arvind Dharmapuri and Ajay Bhatt.

The panel would also comprise Gaurav Gogoi, S Jothimani, P V Mithun Reddy, Srikant Shinde, B Mehtab, K Kanimozhi, Ritesh Pandey and Saugata Roy, he added.

He also said Rajya Sabha can recommend members to the committee and the Speaker will recommend one member to be its chairman.

The panel is expected to give its report before the end of the Budget Session which usually begins in the last week of January.

TMC leader of House Sudip Bandyopadhyay requested the Speaker to replace Saugata Roy with Mohua Moitra as Roy is busy with his party commitments.

The Speaker asked the Parliamentary Affairs minister to discuss the issue.

However, Prasad said that a decision can be taken by the Speaker after the member's resignation as there is a procedure which is followed for creation of any parliamentary committee.

Some of the Opposition members demanded that the Bill be circulated in public for wider consultation.