COMMITTEE CO-ORDINATION SECTION

Transcription

1 COMMITTEE CO-ORDINATION SECTION 2.1 Main Functions: - This Section mainly deals with the work enumerated below: - (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Constitution of Standing Committees of Rajya Sabha and Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DPSCs), including filling of casual vacancies therein and other Committees on which Members of Rajya Sabha are represented; Election/Nomination of Members to the Joint Parliamentary Committees; Constitution of Rajya Sabha Forum/Parliamentary Fora; Processing of notices of Motions received from Ministers for election of Members of Rajya Sabha to various statutory bodies and requests for nomination of Members on such Bodies by the Hon ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha, wherever this is provided for; (v) Dealing with requests received from various State Governments and Ministries/Departments of Central Government seeking approval of Hon ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha to the nomination of Members of Rajya Sabha on various Committees/Boards etc. constituted by them; (vi) (vii) (viii) (ix) (x) (xi) (xii) (xiii) Reference of cases involving questions of holding of Offices of Profit by the Members, to the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit; Laying of Reports of the Joint Committees received from the Lok Sabha Secretariat on the Table of the House; Monitoring of Committee Software, redressal of complaints in this regard and updating Committee membership details; Implementation and Monitoring of MIS Software regarding election/nomination of Members to the statutory and other bodies on which Members of Rajya Sabha are represented; Allotment of Committee Rooms; Coordinating with the various Committees of Rajya Sabha and between the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha Committees; Updation of Mailing List for circulation of Committee Reports; and Amendment to the Third Schedule of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States. 2.2 Other Miscellaneous matters:- Apart from the items of work specifically allotted to this Section, the following matters were also processed/examined during the year 2017:- (a) Suggestions made by Dr. Vinay P. Sahasrabuddhe, Member, Rajya Sabha, for changes in the structure of Committee Reports. (b) Proposal received from Members of Lok Sabha for constitution of separate parliamentary Committees on various subjects. (c) Proposal from the Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) to empower the Committee on Welfare of SCs & STs to scrutinize the action taken by Departments w.r.t recommendations of the NCSC. (d) Suggestion for evidence tendered by prominent functionaries before Committees to be kept in public domain through direct telecast. (e) Revision of Direction by Hon ble Chairman regarding taking of spouse/companion/attendant by Members on study visits of Committees. (f) Review of study tour guidelines, examination of various issues/difficulties faced by Committee Sections relating to such study visits. (g) Issues relating to allegations of conflict of interest against Chairman of DPSC on Home Affairs. (h) Complaint of Shri T.K. Rangarajan, Member, Rajya Sabha regarding lack of communication from the Court of Pondicherry University, to which he was elected a member. (i) Website updation with a focus on streamlining of Select/Adhoc Committees which appear on the Rajya Sabha website and creation of an option for storing in the database information relating to such Committees which have ceased to exist. (j) Processing of matters relating to reference of various Bills to Select Committees, 8

2 (k) (l) (m) (n) (o) (p) (q) (r) (s) (t) constitution of Joint Parliamentary Committees as well as appointment of Members thereto. Implementation of digital display of notices of meetings of Parliamentary Committees, monitoring of input/feedback from the Committees thereon and processing of bills in this regard. Examination of request received from the Inter-State Council Secretariat seeking comments on the Punchchi Commission s recommendations w.r.t Rajya Sabha. Proposal from the Ministry of Railways for streamlining the process for booking of rail tickets for Committee tours. Examination of issue regarding admissibility of certain bills pertaining to study visit of Committees. Quarterly submission of study tour details of Committees to Secretary-General and consolidation of the same at the end of the year. Notification of extension of time for presentation of Reports/Selection of subjects of Committee serviced by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, in the Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Part II. Processing of communications/representations received from various State Legislative Assembly Secretariats, Ministries/Departments, individuals etc. on a regular basis. Compilation of attendance of Members in Committee meetings. Processing of matter relating to obtaining of administrative approval of the competent Authority before incurring any expenditure, in terms of Finance Cell s Circular dated Processing of 15 RTI applications during the period as against 23 RTI Applications during Election/Nomination of Members to Statutory Bodies/Joint Parliamentary Committees: A total of 41 Elections and 39 Nominations of Members to various statutory Bodies/Joint Parliamentary Committees were handled during the year as against 58 Elections and 52 Nominations last year. The notices of Motions for election/requests for nominations of Members of Rajya Sabha to the following Joint Parliamentary Committees, which were due for reconstitution/constitution, were processed and the requisite number of Members got elected/nominated thereto: (i) Committee on Public Accounts (ii) Committee on Public Undertakings (iii) Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (iv) Committee on Welfare of OBCs (v) Joint Committee on Offices of Profit (vi) Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament (vii) Committee on Empowerment of Women (viii) Library Committee (ix) Committee on Food Management in Parliament House Complex (x) Committee on Security in Parliament House Complex The election work involved scrutiny of Notices of Motions for election and their admissibility; preparation of items for List of Business; preparation and publication of programme of election after the adoption of motions by the House; scrutiny of nomination papers; holding of elections, if necessary, and publication of election results in Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II. In the case of nominations, orders of the Hon'ble Chairman were solicited. Nominations made by the Hon'ble Chairman were also published in Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II. The work, both in election and nomination cases, included sending of intimation about the elected/nominated Members to the Ministries and the Members concerned. Messages, wherever necessary, with respect to election of Rajya Sabha Members to the Joint Committees were also sent to the Lok Sabha Nomination/Appointments of Members to New Statutory Bodies/Committees: Requests from various Central Government agencies and State Governments seeking approval of Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha to the nomination/appointment of Members of Rajya Sabha to 9

3 various Committees/Bodies constituted by them were examined and processed in the Section in accordance with the provisions contained in the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959 (PPD Act, 1959) and, wherever considered necessary, references were made for consideration of the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit (JCOP). The cases were, thereafter, placed before the Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha for his consideration/orders. Similarly, in cases of election/nomination of Members to various Statutory Bodies/Committees, it was examined as to whether the relevant Acts/Rules contain any provision for exemption of membership of Members therein from being an 'Office of Profit', or whether the Body/Committee finds mention in the exempted category under the PPD Act, If no clear cut exemption was found in either of these, necessary clarifications were sought from the concerned Ministry and, thereafter, the matter referred to the JCOP for its examination and recommendation thereon. During the year 2017, the requests seeking approval of the Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha to the nomination/election of Members to the following 2 offices/bodies under the Central and State Governments as well as queries relating to office of profit were processed in the Section as against 6 offices/bodies in 2016:- (i) Nomination/Appointment of Shri Bhupender Yadav, Member, Rajya Sabha as Chairperson of the India-Japan Forum of Parliamentarians of FICCI. (ii) Nomination of Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Member, Rajya Sabha as member of the Search-cum- Selection Committee for appointment of Vice-Chancellor, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda Constitution of Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DPSCs) /Standing (House) Committees/Select Committees: (a) Action for re-constitution of the DPSCs and nomination of Members of Rajya Sabha thereto was initiated and the following Committees were reconstituted w.e.f. 1 st September, 2017:- 1. Committee on Commerce 2. Committee on Health and Family Welfare 3. Committee on Home Affairs 4. Committee on Human Resource Development 5. Committee on Industry 6. Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice 7. Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests 8. Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture 9. Committee on Agriculture 10. Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers 11. Committee on Coal and Steel 12. Committee on Defence 13. Committee on Energy 14. Committee on External Affairs 15. Committee on Finance 16. Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution 17. Committee on Information Technology 18. Committee on Labour 19. Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas 20. Committee on Railways 21. Committee on Rural Development 22. Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment 23. Committee on Urban Development 24. Committee on Water Resources The re-constitution of these Committees was processed by the Section and the proposals for nomination of Members thereto, submitted for consideration/approval of the Hon ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha. After approval, necessary Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II was issued. 10

4 During this year, apart from the re-constitution of the above Committees, a total of 109 cases of nominations/change of nominations of Members of Rajya Sabha to various Departmentrelated Parliamentary Standing Committees, Standing (House) Committees and other Committees of Rajya Sabha as against 65 cases last year were examined by the Section and orders of the Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha obtained. Besides, 18 cases of nominations/change of nominations/resignation of Lok Sabha Members from DPSCs were notified in the Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II during the year as against 21 cases in (b) The re-constitution of the following Standing (House) Committees of Rajya Sabha was done w.e.f. 15 th September, 2016:- 1. Committee on Subordinate Legislation 2. Committee on Petitions 3. Committee on Government Assurances 4. Committee on Papers Laid on the Table 5. House Committee 6. Committee of Privileges 7. Business Advisory Committee 8. Committee on Rules These Committees do not have a fixed tenure and hold office until a new Committee is reconstituted. These Committees, therefore, continue to remain in force from the date they were last re-constituted. However, the General Purposes Committee (GPC) was re-constituted w.e.f. 8 th March, (c) Besides the above, the Committee on Ethics and Committee on Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme were re-constituted w.e.f. the 5 th October, These Committees do not have a fixed tenure and hold office until a new Committee is re-constituted. These Committees, therefore, continue to remain in force from the date they were last re-constituted. (d) The Committee on Provision of Computers to Members of Rajya Sabha (PCMRS) was re-constituted w.e.f. 15 th February, (e) Apart from the above Committees, all works relating to the two Select Committees referred to the Rajya Sabha viz., Select Committee on the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and Select Committee on the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017, were processed by this Section. 2.5 Annual Action Plan, During the year, quarterly reviews of implementation of Annual Action Plan-2017 were submitted to Divisional Head regularly and status report of the Annual Action Plan-2017 for the period from January to June, 2017 and from January-December, 2017 were prepared and furnished to the O&M Section. Further, Annual Action Plan, 2018 for Committee Co-ordination Section was prepared and sent to the O&M Section Updation of Publication: The following publications were updated:- (i) Rajya Sabha Statistical Information This publication is also being processed for updation to include information upto Subsequently, it was directed to further update the same to include information relating to all Branches/Sections upto Accordingly, the publication is under updation; (ii) "Committees of Rajya Sabha and other Parliamentary Committees and Bodies on which Rajya Sabha is represented"; and (iii) "Handbook of Important Decisions concerning Committee Co-ordination Section" Laying/Presentation of Reports/Statements of Joint Parliamentary Committees of Lok Sabha: During the year, the Section handled the work of laying/presentation of Reports/Statements of various Committees serviced by the Lok Sabha Secretariat. A total of 274 such Reports/Statements were laid on the Table of Rajya Sabha as against 228 last year and 10 Reports were presented to the Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha, during the inter-session period as against 8 Reports last year. 11

5 2.8. Monitoring/implementation of the Committee Software and MIS Software:- (a) Committee Software: The Software contains details of membership of Committees, meetings, Study Tours undertaken by the Committees, names/designations of officers accompanying the Committees during such visits, liaison officers designated to co-ordinate these visits. While it is the exclusive responsibility of Committee Sections concerned to enter and update the data regarding Committee meetings/tours details etc, Committee Coordination Section is mandated to keep the information about composition of Committees updated in the Software, apart from overseeing implementation of the Software by other Sections. The composition of existing Committees and status of Committee Room Booking are updated. Committee Report Search facility has been incorporated with provision for searching Ministry-wise and year-wise data. (b) MIS Software: Apart from the Committee Software, this Section is also entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the MIS Software regarding elections/nominations of Members of Rajya Sabha to different statutory and other Bodies. The Software inter-alia contains details like the names and term of membership of Members of Rajya Sabha represented on these Bodies. Necessary entries in this Software are carried out on an ongoing basis and the output generated by this Software shows the updated position on the Rajya Sabha Website. (c) NIC has developed a new MIS Software for all the Committees which is under test phase. IT Sections (H&S) has made Committee Co-ordination Section as the nodal Section for New Committee MIS Software Beta version (testing purpose). This Section has been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing/monitoring of implementation of Committee Software. This Section is in active contact with NIC in ironing out issues which have been pointed out by the Committees during test. (d) Status of Computerisation: This Section has been provided with six Pentium IV based P.Cs. which are being adequately used for typing notes and other miscellaneous items of work of this Section. The Computers are also used for sending s and monitoring implementation/maintenance of Committee Software and MIS Software regarding Elections/Nominations of Members to the Statutory and other Bodies on which Members of Rajya Sabha are represented Weeding out of old records: During this year, a total of 102 old files of the Section were weeded out as compared to 11 old files were weeded out in Digital display of notices of meetings of Parliamentary Committees has been implemented. Besides, Committee Co-ordination monitors the inputs/feedback from the Committee Sections thereon and processing of bills in this regard Analysis: The details of the activities undertaken by the Section in the year 2017 have been enumerated above. The Annual Action Plan 2017 sets goals for completion of work of election/nomination to different Committees/Statutory Bodies in order to fill up vacancies in time and for re-constitution of Standing/Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees. These goals were, to a great extent, achieved with success, except for very few cases which are pending with the concerned Ministries/Authorities or have not been cleared from the Office of Profit angle. Besides this, the following may also be highlighted:- A highlight of the goals achieved by the Section in the year 2017 is the increasing role being played by the Section as a nodal agency for issues relating to Committee matters which required in-depth research/examination. All these issues were examined and disposed off satisfactorily in time. 12