Parliamentary Questions Series
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Questions and Answers–Making Parliamentary Procedures More Accessible
Question Hour has become a well-established part of the proceedings in Parliament. All Members of Parliament have this tool at their disposal in order to hold the Executive accountable, whether it is to inquire about the progress of public projects, the status of schemes, the utilization of public money, or virtually any issue that impacts policy making at a national and state level.
Apart from the 20 Starred Questions that get answered by Ministers on the floor of the House, replies to most Parliamentary Questions are rarely publicized.
230 Unstarred Questions are asked in the Lok Sabha, and 175 in the Rajya Sabha each day that Parliament is in session. These questions receive written responses from concerned Ministries. The data provided in these replies is usually the most recent figures on the progress of a scheme, information on Government decisions, and the status of various reports, surveys, as information is typically updated more infrequently on Ministry websites. A huge repository of data exists on both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites, archiving thousands of questions asked by Members of Parliament over the years, yet few are aware of it.
In an effort to make some of this information more accessible, Your Voice Your Issues is starting a new initiative called Questions and Answers. Each week we will discuss a policy issue raised through a Parliamentary Question, it’s reply, and the different dimensions of the issue that still need to be addressed. This is an opportunity for you to become more aware of and engaged in the different legislative processes of our country. Your comments and feedback are encouraged!
“Questions and Answers” is a four-part series of blog posts on Parliamentary Questions asked by M.P. Jayant Chaudhary in 2012-2013, which will be written by Saanya Gulati.
Saanya Gulati is a LAMP Fellow at PRS Legislative Research