New MPs Need to Study Guidelines This Budget Session
BANGALORE: No multiple answers, no website referring, no clubbing of answers. The Lok Sabha secretariat mentioned guidelines for the 315 first time MPs in Lok Sabha in a letter on 27th June on how to deal with Parliamentary questions in the forthcoming budget sessions. It seems the MPs will gain a lot of do’s and don’ts from the letter.
The secretariat has advised the ministries to revise the documents to be laid on the table for proper authentication and not to refer any websites for answering the questions raise by MPs as the website content is not static and dynamic. He also focused on straight forward answers for different questions and no clubbing.
The letter intended ministers says, "A question is not usually disallowed on the sole plea of the ministry/department that it is not in the public interest to give information on the floor of the house. It is always open to the minister to state in reply to a question that he/she is not prepared to disclose the information in public interest and it is for the House to accept it.
The Speaker, may, only in rare case, disallow a question in larger national interest, if it is brought to the Speaker's notice by the minister concerned that the disclosure of information will be prejudicial to the safety of the state, giving also briefly the background of the matter," as revealed by The Economic Times.
Definitely the letter has stirred the minds of many ministers and the concerned departments about certain rules and regulations to be followed in their maiden budget sessions. It will be interesting to see how many of them will take this as a vital piece of advice and who all still needs another set of letters for re-revisions.
