NEW DELHI : With Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in sight, Congress today constituted a jumbo PCC for Jammu and Kashmir comprising 12 vice presidents, 25 general secretaries and a 52-member executive committee.

It also has many as 27 organising secretaries and 52 secretaries.

PCC chief Saifuddin Soz, CLP leader Md Aslam and Deputy CLP leader Mohammad Sharief Niyaz are members of the executive along with Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and senior leaders Karan Singh, Makhan Lal Fotedar and Madan Lal Sharma.

The effort is to accommodate factions of the state unit and former PCC chief Ghulam Rasool Kar, Md. Shafi Qureshi, Peerzada Mohd Syed and Mohd Aslam will be permanent invitees to the executive committee.

Besides ministers, MLAs, MLCs, vice presidents, general secretaries, district presidents, organizing secretaries, secretaries, joint secretaries and heads of frontal organisations will be ex-officio members of the executive committee.

In neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, the party also brought in two more vice presidents, one general secretary, four executive members, five permanent invitees, 34 secretaries and one member of the state disciplinary committee.

The permanent invitees include Pratibha Singh, wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The vice presidents are Rangila Ramarao and Veeru Ram Kishore and general secretary Kishori Lal. (agencies)

NEW DELHI :  The issue of frisking of MPs could come up at an emergency meeting of the Committee on Security in Parliament Complex on Monday in the wake of the pepper spray attack in the Lok Sabha yesterday evoking outrage.

A Congress member from Telangana has complained to the Speaker for initiating criminal action against expelled party lawmaker L Rajagopal, who used pepper spray in the House, and TDP member Venugopal Reddy. Ponnam Prabhakar also told that he will file a complaint with Parliament street police station.

Speaker Meira Kumar has directed that the Committee, headed by Deputy Speaker Karia Munda, discuss all security related matters.

“In order to consider the events in the House on Thursday, the Speaker has directed that an emergency meeting of the Committee on Security in Parliament Complex should be called on Monday,” a Lok Sabha Secretariat release said.

The Committee will be examining all security-related matters including the means to prevent bringing of dangerous and life-threatening material into the Chamber of the House by the Members of Parliament, it said.

“The pros and cons about the various security measures that should be adopted will be considered in detail by the Committee”, the release said without elaborating on the mechanism to be adopted.

Rajagopal attracted widespread condemnation after his use of pepper spray in the Lok Sabha to thwart introduction of the Telangana bill. The House had witnessed unprecedented ugly scenes.

The Speaker has dubbed the incident as a “blot” on India’s parliamentary traditions and insisted members maintain the highest standards of decorum and uphold democratic values which have been assiduously nurtured all these six decades in the country. (agencies)