2. COMMITTEE COORDINATION SECTION

Transcription

1 2. COMMITTEE COORDINATION SECTION 2.1 Main Functions: - This Section mainly deals with the work enumerated below: - (ii) 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 Parliamentary Fora on various subjects; 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, wherever this is provided for, by the Hon ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha; (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) (xiv) (xv) Reference of cases involving questions of holding of Offices of Profit by the Members to the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit; Compilation, printing and distribution of the booklets titled Committees of Rajya Sabha and other Parliamentary Committees and Bodies on which Rajya Sabha is represented ; and Rajya Sabha Committees-A Profile ; 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; Committee Coordination; Updation of Mailing List for circulation of Committee Reports; Amendment to the Third Schedule of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States; and Other Miscellaneous matters:- Apart from the items of work specifically allotted to this Section, the following matters were also processed/examined during the year 2013:- (1) Regularization/reimbursement of inadmissible expenditure in connection with study tours of Parliamentary Committees; (2) Analysis of a paper entitled Evaluating Parliamentary Committees and Committee System: Changing Contours of Governance and Policy ; (3) Comprehensive examination of Study Tour Guidelines and drafting of Study Tour Instructions; (4) Write-up on Proportional Representation by Means of the Single Transferable Vote- Genesis and Philosophy- its application in Rajya Sabha; (5) Study Tour of the Committee on Industry to Srinagar vis- a-vis Gulmarg and Pahalgam in the context of local sightseeing-reg; (6) Item for inclusion in PB-II regarding dropping of subjects by the DPSC on PPG; (7) Restriction of refreshment served to officials from allied services in Committee meeting of Industry-reg; (8) Objection of membership of Shri Naveen Jindal, MP (LS) in the Committee on Home Affairs; (9) Audit objection to bills of Committees study visits; (10) Matter related to appointment of Shri P. Bhattacharya and Dr. Ashok. S. Ganguly to the JPC to examine the matters relating to allocation and pricing of 2G Spectrum and preparation of ruling of HC/reply of HC on issues submitted by LOP and other 21

2 Members on their appointment; (11) Framing of Guidelines regarding meeting of Foreign Parliamentary Delegations with Chairpersons/Members of Parliamentary Committees of Rajya Sabha; (12) Examination of alleged intrusion of the jurisdiction of COPU by the DPSC on Industry; issue of overlapping of subjects selected for examination by Committee on Information Technology and Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law & Justice; (13) Statistical compilation on the volume of works done by Committee Coordination Section since its inception vis-à-vis Parliamentary Committees and all Sections/Branches since 1952 inception; (14) Examination on issues raised in the Occasional Paper titled Genetically Modified Crops- Issues and Challenges in the context of India. (15) Request of Prasar Bharati to address communication to the CEO; (16) Examination of request from the Committee Section (Commerce) on giving uniform reply pertaining to RTI application; (17) Examination of Study Tour Note prepared by Committee Section (Industry); (18) Request of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sectt seeking information on facilities provided to the staff accompanying the Committees of Legislatures; (19) Policy relating to Supply of Reports of Parliamentary Committees to the Hon ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha and Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha; (20) Direction for inclusion of additional information in the note regarding extension of time for Report on Bills; (21) Re-designing of format of Committee Compositions of Rajya Sabha Website; (22) Quarterly submission of study tour details of Committees to Secretary-General; (23) Submission of monthly information of meetings of Committees to Secretary- General; (24) Submission of quarterly report to Rajbhasha Prabhag; (25) Compilation of monthly status report regarding uploading of Reports of Committees on the Rajya Sabha website; (26) Submission of monthly information on status of Bills pending with DPSCs of Rajya Sabha; (27) Notification of extension of time for presentation of Reports/Selection of subjects of Lok Sabha Committees in the Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Part II; (28) Processing of 11 RTI applications during the period; (29) Processing of 257 cases of laying of Reports/Statements of various Lok Sabha Committees; (30) Examination of query raised by Leader of JD(U) regarding appointment of Shri K.C. Tyagi as Chairman of the Committee on Industry; request for nomination of Shri Kiranmay Nanda as Special Invitee to the Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests; (31) Supplying of inputs to the write-up on the topic The protection of witness who appear before Parliamentary Committees, prepared for Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha for a meeting of ASGP between October 22-26, 2013 at Quebec, Canada; (32) Preparation of status report on implementation of Annual Action Plan 2013 (both quarterly and annually) as well as Annual Action Plan, 2014; (33) Compilation of materials/information from Committee Sections for the publication titled Rajya Sabha Committees A Profile (2012) ; (34) Weeding out of 12 old files; (35) Digitization of 37 old files for record purpose during the year; and (36) Monitoring and updation of status of nomination/appointment of Members to various Statutory Bodies/Committees on the MIS Software Election/Nomination of Members to Statutory Bodies/Joint Parliamentary Committees/Fora: A total of 50 Elections and 34 Nominations of Members to various statutory Bodies/Joint Parliamentary Committees were handled during the year as against 65 Elections and 49 22

3 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: (ii) (v) (vi) (vii) Committee on Public Accounts Committee on Public Undertakings Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Committee on Welfare of OBCs Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament Committee on Empowerment of Women Library Committee Members were also nominated to the following Parliamentary Fora: (ii) (v) (vi) Parliamentary Forum on Water Conservation and Management Parliamentary Forum on Youth Parliamentary Forum on Children Parliamentary Forum on Population and Public Health Parliamentary Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change Parliamentary Forum on Disaster Management In addition, two new Parliamentary Fora viz., Parliamentary Forum on Artisans and Craftsmen and (ii) Parliamentary Forum on Millennium Development Goals were constituted by the Hon'ble Speaker, Lok Sabha in consultation with Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha w.e.f. 26 th April, 2013 and 11 th December, 2013 respectively. 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. In addition, the proposals received from the Lok Sabha Secretariat regarding extension of the tenure of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Security in Parliament House Complex and the Committee on Food Management in Parliament House Complex were also processed for the approval of the Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha and the tenure of these two Committees was extended for one year each. With respect to Parliamentary Fora, meetings of the Fora were notified in Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II and meeting notices as well as Data base were also issued to all Members of Rajya Sabha from time to time as requested by Lok Sabha Secretariat during Session period 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 of Members of Rajya Sabha to 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. During the year 2013, the requests seeking approval of the Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha to the nomination of Members to the following offices/bodies under the Central and State Governments as well as queries relating to office of profit were processed in the Section:- 23

4 Examination of Request received from Government of Himachal Pradesh to reconstitute the State Planning Board and nomination of all MPs from that State as non-official members. (ii) Nomination to multi-stakeholder National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR). Participation of Dr. Ashok S. Ganguly in the deliberations of a Committee constituted by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to prepare a roadmap for enhancing domestic production of oil and gas and sustainable reduction in import dependency by Constitution of a District Level Advisory Committee to monitor the Prime Minister s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP). (v) Nomination of Members of Rajya Sabha to the Himachal Pradesh State Level Planning Development and 20-Point Programme Review Committee. (vi) Nomination of the oldest Member of Rajya Sabha to the National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSrC). As per past practice, such new cases are examined by the Section and seen whether a provision exists in the relevant Act or whether that body has been included in the exempted lists provided in the PPD Act, If this does not throw any light on the Office of Profit issue, the matter is referred to the JCOP for its views/recommendation in this regard. However, since a majority of these bodies do not have statutory protection to Members in this regard, the JCOP has been giving conditional clearance with a precautionary advice that its recommendations are advisory in nature and cannot give any protection to the Members until and unless they are given statutory effect by suitably amending the relevant Act or the PPD Act, In view of such difficulty, the matter was referred to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, which had, in consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice, issued a direction to all Ministries/Departments of Government of India to review all such cases and ensure before sending any request for nomination/notice of Motion for election that membership of MPs therein is cleared in this regard. Further, the Ministry of Law & Justice had prepared a draft Bill for amending the PPD Act, 1959 by incorporating a provision that holding of membership by MPs, if elected/appointed by the House or the Council, shall be exempted from disqualification. The same was submitted to the JCOP, which had vide its Eight Report, presented to both the Houses during the 227 th Session, accepted the views of the Ministry. Similarly, a draft Constitution (Amendment) Bill was prepared by them wherein a comprehensive definition of the expression Office of Profit as well as statutory protection to MPs elected/appointed to State Bodies were included. The Ministry had sought comments of the State Governments on the Bill before a final decision of the Government is obtained. These matters are still under consideration of the Ministry of Law & Justice and the Section is awaiting further developments. 2.3 Constitution of Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees/Standing 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. 31 st August, 2013:- 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 24

5 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 cases for re-constitution of these Committees were 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 Bulletins Part-II were issued. During this year, apart from the re-constitution of the above Committees, a total of 31 cases of nominations/change of nominations of Members of Rajya Sabha to various Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees, Standing Committees and other Committees of Rajya Sabha as against 112 cases last year were examined by the Section and orders of the Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha obtained. Besides, 30 cases of nominations/change of nominations of Lok Sabha Members were notified in the Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II during the year. (b) The process for re-constitution of the following Standing Committees of Rajya Sabha (House Committees) in line with the established practice was initiated and they were reconstituted w.e.f. 9 th May, 2013:- 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 (c) General Purposes Committee was re-constituted w.e.f. the 7 th September, Annual Action Plan, During this year, quarterly reviews of implementation of Annual Action Plan-2013 were submitted to Divisional Head regularly and status report of the Annual Action Plan-2013 for the period from January-October, 2013 was prepared and furnished to the O&M Section. Further, Annual Action Plan, 2014 for Committee Co-ordination Section was prepared and sent to the O&M Section. 2.5 Compilation, Printing and distribution of booklets/pamphlets: During the year 2013, a publication namely, 'Rajya Sabha Committees - A Profile (2012)'' was published and distributed to the concerned Officers and Committee Sections of the Secretariat. In addition, a publication titled Committees of Rajya Sabha and Other Parliamentary Committees and Bodies on which Rajya 25

6 Sabha is represented was also compiled during the year and sent to Printing Section for providing the printed copies for circulation. 2.6 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 257 such Reports/Statements were laid on the Table of Rajya Sabha as against 288 last year and six Reports were presented to the Hon'ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha, during the inter-session period as against four Reports last year. 2.7 Monitoring/implementation of the Committee Software and MIS Software:- (a) Committee Software: This Section has been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing/monitoring of implementation of Committee Software. The Software inter alia 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 and. While it is the exclusive responsibility of Committee Sections concerned to enter and update the data regarding Committee meetings/tours details etc, Committee Co-ordination 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. Format of Committee composition has been re-designed in consultation with IT Section and NIC. (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 being carried out on an ongoing basis and the output generated by this Software shows the updated position on the Rajya Sabha Website. 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. 2.8 Weeding out of old records: During this year, a total of 12 old files of the Section were weeded out as compared to 16 old files that were weeded out in Analysis: The details of the activities undertaken by the Section in the year 2013 have been enumerated above. The Annual Action Plan 2013 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. Further, the following new initiatives were undertaken during this period:- As per past practice, election of Members of Rajya Sabha to various Committees/Statutory Bodies were done on the basis of consensus arrived at between various major Party Leaders and actual elections were not held. However, for the last few years elections are finding favour among the Members of Rajya Sabha. Earlier such elections used to be held with the help of experienced officers from outside the Secretariat. Now, this Secretariat has, in the process, gained some experience and since 2013, elections are being held independently by in-house officers/staff quite smoothly; 26

7 (ii) A write-up on Proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (STV) - Genesis and Philosophy its application in Rajya Sabha has been prepared during the year, which will serve as a guide book for the conduct of elections to various Committees/Statutory Bodies; Since Rajya Sabha has no regulations for the conduct of Elections to various Committees/Statutory Bodies, elections of Rajya Sabha Members thereto are held under the Regulations of Lok Sabha. It has been decided to frame similar Regulations of Rajya Sabha. The work has already started; and Another highlight of the goals achieved by the Section in the year 2013 is the increasing role being played by the Section as a nodal agency of the Secretariat with a variety of issues pertaining to other Sections/Offices of the Secretariat being referred to it from time to time, which required in-depth research/examination. All these issues were examined and disposed of satisfactorily in time. 27