M A I N   N E W S

So casual about Question hour
Only 42 of 440 queries could be raised in Parliament
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 30
Government’s answerability to the people is declining, with question hour, the only parliamentary tool that makes ministers accountable to the legislature, losing its relevance session after session. In the monsoon session concluding tomorrow, Question hour remained the biggest casualty of repeated disruptions in both the Houses.

Analysis of statistical data from the two Houses shows that in Lok Sabha, out of 23 hours set aside for questions, 11 hours (47 per cent) could be made available. Naturally, out of 440 starred questions (which are to be orally answered and where MPs can pose supplementary queries to ministers to grill them on real-time issues) admitted here, less than 10 per cent (42) could be answered.

The corresponding starred questions admitted in Rajya Sabha were 440, of which 17 per cent (76) were answered.

Even here, out of 23 hours blocked for question hour, 13 were available.

Since the 15th Lok Sabha commenced from the Budget session in 2009, time allocated for the question hour has gradually been squeezed. In the Budget session 2009, 79 per cent time allocated for questions was used in LS. This percentage fell to 73 by the winter session 2009 and to 49 in the Budget session this year, plunging eventually to 47 in the current monsoon session.

In Rajya Sabha, 84 per cent of the time allotted to question hour in the Budget session 2009 was used. The percentage was down to 70 in 2009 winter session and 58 in the current monsoon session.

Ironically, question hour continues to take a hit even though the overall productive time of Parliament is improving. In monsoon session, the planned work hours for Lok Sabha were 138 and the utilised hours were 116 — 84 per cent, which is better than the previous budget session where 66 per cent time was available. Similarly, RS planned to sit for 104 hours in the monsoon session. By August 26, it had completed 104 hours, which is 90 per cent better than 74 per cent in the budget session in 2010.

Yet, question hour continues to be sacrificed, with the proposal of LS Speaker Meira Kumar and RS Chairman Hamid Ansari to shift it to a more opportune time (rather than 11 am when disruptions are routine) falling on deaf years. Even in terms of business, the government fared poorly this time. Against the 35 legislations it listed for introduction, it could bring just 17. Of the 33 Bills meant for passing, only 14 were passed. In the 15th LS since 2009, UPA-II listed 99 Bills for passing and actually passed only 37 (37 per cent).

No mention this time was made of the Women’s Reservation Bill. On attendance, MPs did well in the monsoon session, with 41 per cent registering over 90 per cent attendance and only 9 per cent registering less than 40 per cent attendance. In RS, 98 MPs had over 90 per cent attendance this session.