Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge is the new chairman of the 21-member Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. Mr. Kharge replaces Congress leader K V Thomas whose term ended last month. <br/><br/>The Parliamentary panel, which is traditionally headed by an opposition leader, has a majority of its members from the ruling NDA. The new committee has only two new faces, while the remaining members have been renominated. BJP MPs Subhash Chandra Baheria and Ram Shankar have replaced their party members Richard Hay and Janardan Singh Sigriwal.<br/><br/>The Committee on Public Accounts is the oldest Parliamentary committee that examines the accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament for expenditure of the government and such other accounts of autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies. The committee also examines the reports of CAG on various subjects.