Devnani forms 16 House panels; Raje, Gehlot & Pilot nominated

Jaipur: Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani Thursday constituted 16 House committees for 2026-27, naming chairpersons and members, with former chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Ashok Gehlot, and former deputy CM Sachin Pilot nominated to the Rules Committee.Devnani will be the ex-officio chairperson of the Rules Committee. The committees' tenure will run until March 31 next year. Of the 16 committees—12 general and four financial—BJP MLAs will chair 11 panels, while Congress MLAs will head three.Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully has been named chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee. Congress MLA Rajendra Pareek will head the Questions and References Committee, while Narendra Budaniya will chair the Committee on Welfare of Backward Classes.Devnani will also serve as ex-officio chairperson of the General Purposes Committee, which includes Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma as a member for the first time. The 16-member panel also includes Jully and several senior MLAs.Only one committee will be chaired by a woman MLA, with BJP's Kalpana Devi heading the Committee on Welfare of Women and Children.Other appointments include Ramesh Khinchi as chairperson of the Scheduled Caste Welfare Committee, Phool Singh Meena heading the Scheduled Tribe Welfare Committee, and Jaswant Singh Yadav leading the Committee on Home, Local Bodies, and Panchayati Raj Institutions. Harisingh Rawat will chair the Library and Govt Assurances Committee, Kailash Chand Varma the Petition and Ethics Committee, Jitendra Kumar Gothwal the Privileges and Subordinate Legislation Committee, and Kesaram Chaudhary the Committee on Welfare of Minorities and Environment.Devnani also constituted the four financial committees—Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee "A", Estimates Committee "B", and the Public Undertakings Committee. Jully will chair the Public Accounts Committee, while Sandeep Sharma will head Estimates Committee "A", Babu Singh Rathore Estimates Committee "B", and Kalicharan Saraf the Public Undertakings Committee.