Several MPs ironically don’t have time or are too full of activity for House panels

vIndianz.com (Dec. 05, 2009) — COMIt is not just the question hour and other procedures in Parliament where MPs are found absent. Attendance at parliamentary standing committees — bodies that scrutinize the performance of union ministries — is an additional pointer of how severe our parliamentarians are regarding their work.

indian-parliament A yearly audit for 2007-08 of the implementation of standing committees during the last Lok Sabha reveals outrageous details, with a lot of MPs earning the doubtful difference of not having attended a particular meeting in the complete year.

Screen queen-turned-politician, Jaya Prada Nahata, who triggered a near war in the Samajwadi Party over her renomination from Rampur, did not show up for any of 26 meetings of departmentally-related standing committee on information technology. Harish Nagpal and Rubab Sayeda kept her company in the “completely missing” list. In contrast, MPs like CPM-discard Abdullakutty and Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre attended 23 meetings each, a fact of sorts by present parliamentary standards.

This remorseful outline is recurring in the attendance records of all the 12 major committees which met frequently between August 2007 and 2008 to supervise the functioning of union ministries.

Ironically, there is a mix up among MPs to be on significant standing committees as a seat on these panels gives them power with officials. The meetings are barely an austere matter, with the ministries and public sector undertakings requisite to foot the bill for tours of members who are always lodged in luxurious places and have fleets of cars at their disposal.

These “incentives”, though, are not enough for a few. For example, Janardhan Waghmare skipped all 13 meetings of the agriculture committee, as did former Union minister Arun Shourie who was a member of the defense panel. Similarly, RLD’s Anuradha Chaudhary and Nandkumar Chauhan did not show up at any of the 14 meetings of the committee on energy throughout the year. BSP’s Kailash Nath Singh Yadav was slightly better, having attending one meeting.

turnout at the urban development panel was just as awful, with V K Malhotra, Avtar Singh Bhadana, Pappu Yadav and Babulal Marandi skipping all 17 meetings. The committee, yet, too had Surendra Motilal Patel who was in attendance throughout.

Salim Shervani and Damodar Barku Shingada were not part of any of the 15 discussions of the committee on external affairs, while Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi could unused time for just one meeting.

Congress’s Rajesh Mishra turned up for two of the 30 meetings of the committee on finance. In the food, consumer affairs and public distribution committee, which met 15 times throughout the year, Baliram Kashyap came for two and Suresh Angadi for three meetings.

In contrast, there were lots of MPs who chose to be part of the discussions at the agriculture committee. In the 13 meetings in 2007-08, CPI’s Prabodh Panda attended all. Harish Rawat and Rajasekara Murthy attended 12; Girdharilal Bhargava came for 10 and Manoranjan Bhakta for nine.

The chemicals and fertilizers committee met eight times. MPs from UP – Ajit Singh and Afzal Ansari did not appear for any whereas Punnulal Mohale made himself present for one. Satish Chandra Mishra and Sudam Marandi skipped all 11 discussions of the petroleum and natural gas committee while A K S Vijayan came for one.

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Several MPs ironically don’t have time or are too full of activity for House panels

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