He made this remark at the inauguration of the National Conference of Chairpersons of Committees of Parliament and State Legislatures on the Welfare of SCs and STs.
Role of Parliamentary Committee
- Non-Partisan Functioning & Consensus Building: It fosters cross-party consensus as it includes members from multiple parties including opposition parties.
- Domain Expertise: e.g. The Committee on Health studied Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016.
- Ensures government accountability: e.g. The Public Accounts Committee in 2024 flagged excess spending by four ministries.
- Focus on developmental issues: e.g. The Committee on Rural Development flagged declining successive budgetary allocations to Panchayati Raj Institutions.
- Strengthen laws passed by parliament.E.g. Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 was revised due to insights given by joint parliamentary committee
Challenges in functioning of Parliamentary Committee
- Referral of Bills to Committees is not Mandatory: Declining trend in the percentage of bills being referred to a Committee has been observed. E.g. 15th Lok Sabha(71%), 16th (28%), 17th (16%).
- Low participation: Attendance of MPs in Committee meetings is ~50%, which is lower than the 84% attendance during the Parliament sittings.
- Lack of Expert and Research Support: Parliamentary Committees are frequently thinly staffed and lack full-time technical expert and research support.
Steps to be Taken
- Referring Bills to Committees-can be made mandatory like in United Kingdom
- Increase Transparency: Specify reasons for rejecting certain recommendations.
- Enhance research support: Allow Committees to retain expert advisors for informed scrutiny.
