JOIN USRS plans to curb adjournments
The RS secretariat, under the guidance of Chairman Hamid Ansari and deputy chairman Rahman Khan, is drafting amendments to the Rules and Procedures of Conduct of Business in the Rajya Sabha to ensure that no question goes unanswered even if the member who is to ask the question is absent in the House.
As per the decision taken by the General Purpose Committee of the RS, the question to be taken up during the Question Hour is deemed to have become the property of the House once it figures in the list of questions to be answered orally that particular day. If the MP who has raised the question is absent, the Chair will direct any member to ask that question.
On any day when the House is session, 20 questions are listed to be taken up for oral answers. “The government and Parliament spends quite a sum on this exercise and we don’t want these questions to go unanswered. Hence, the new exercise”, RS deputy chairman Rahman Khan told Deccan Herald on Wednesday. This draft resolution will now be moved in the House for approval as all rules and procedures have to be approved by the House itself.
Another move aims to give opportunity to more and more MPs to raise questions during the Question Hour. At present, two MPs need to sign for raising one question for either oral answering or written replies. The proposed move in this regard will ensure that only one member is needed to raise a question.
As for the Zero Hour, two clocks have been installed in the House which become stop watches once a member starts making his/her special mention. A member is allowed only 3 minutes to make his speech after which his/her microphone is switched off.
“This move has brought in a lot of discipline as we can allow at least 10 MPs to speak. The MPs, who used to take 30 minutes to speak on one issue, now convey the same in 3 minutes”, Khan observed. The Secretariat is now planning to bring in discipline for debates too.
The Lok Sabha sunk to a new low on November 30 when the House was adjourned at 11.23 am since a large number of MPs who were to raise questions for oral answers were not present. The House was adjourned as only three questions were taken up for answering.