Guidelines and Procedure to be followed by Ministries/Departments in connection with Parliament Questions.

Subject: Guidelines and Procedure to be followed by Ministries/Departments in connection with Parliament Questions.

The undersigned is directed to state that the Sixth Session of the Sixteenth Lok Sabha is scheduled to commence on Thursday, the 26th November, 2015 and is likely to conclude on Wednesday, the 23rd December 2015. The Ministries/Departments concerned of the Government of India are requested to follow the guidelines and procedures as stipulated in Annexure-I meticulously.

The Officers dealing with Questions in Lok Sabha Secretariat alongwith their contact details, telephone Nos. and e-mails etc. are given at Annexure-II. They may be contacted, if need be, to avoid undue delay and inconvenience.

It is also requested that contents of this O.M. may be hosted on the website of the Ministry/Department, subordinate, attached field formations and other offices under their administrative control for wider dissemination of information.

The receipt of this communication may please be acknowledged.

S C CHAUDHARY

Director

Phone: 23034330 (O)

Encl: As above          23034341 (O)

23012629 (Fax)

To,

1. Prime Minister Office
2. Cabinet Secretariat
3. All Ministries/Departments of Government of India

Copy forwarded for information to:-

1. Principal Secretary to HS
2. PS to Secretary General
3. PS to Secretary
4. PA to JS(RS)
5. PA to Director (EW & Q)
6. Additional Director (Q & C)
7. Additional Director (OBC & Q)
8. Additional Director (Q & P)
9. Additional Director (C & Q)
10. All Officers and Groups of Question Branch

Reena Gopalakrishnan

Deputy Secretary

Copy also forwarded for information and necessary action to:-

• Hindi Information Unit, Editorial Branch
• Software Unit, Computer (HW&SW) Management Branch.

Reena Gopalakrishnan

Deputy Secretary

ANNEXURE- I

Factual Note through Fax/E-mail
Factual    Note    in  regard   to   referred   questions  should   be   furnished    by   the

Ministries/Departments expeditiously through digitally signed E-mail/(Fax No. 23035344) followed by note duly signed in original. All correspondence sent for furnishing facts should be acknowledged by the Ministries/Departments concerned. Where the facts are not received by the stipulated date, the Lok Sabha Secretariat shall take appropriate decision in the matter, on merit.

Question on which a plea of not in public interest advanced
A question is not usually disallowed on the sole plea of the Ministry/Department that it is not in the public interest to furnish information on the floor of the House. It is always open to a Minister to state in reply to a question that he/she is not prepared to disclose the information in public interest and it is for the House to accept it. The Speaker may, only in rare cases, disallow a question in larger national interest, if it is brought to the Speaker’s notice in time by the Minister concerned that the disclosure of information will be prejudicial to the safety of the State, giving also briefly the background of the matter.

Advance copy of the admitted questions
Advance copies of the provisionally admitted questions are sent online to the Ministry/Department to facilitate them for collection of material for preparation of answer. The Ministries/Departments are, therefore, requested to furnish e-mail id of the Parliament Section or any other designated Officers/Branch(es) to whom advance copy of admitted notice(s) of questions can be forwarded.

Immediately on receipt of the advance copy, the Ministry/Department is expected to go through the contents of the notice and furnish their comments suo-moto. In the event where the Ministry/Department feels that the notice suffers from any infirmity viz the Government of India is not primarily responsible; matter being pending in a court of law; etc. or that the question lacks factual basis, etc. the same may be brought to the notice of the Joint Secretary/Director-in-charge of Question Branch as expeditiously as possible and in any case within 24 hours of the receipt of such advance notice. Where a communication is received beyond this period and/or after Question Lists have been printed, it will not be possible to reconsider the admissibility of a question in the light of facts communicated.

Transfer of Notices of question
Immediately on receipt of provisionally admitted notice of questions online or otherwise, the concerned Ministry/Department should ascertain and ensure administrative jurisdiction. Where the subject matter of a question is the concern of a Ministry/Department other than the one to whom it is originally addressed, it is incumbent upon the Ministry/Department to whom the question has been originally addressed by the Member, to move transfer of the question to the Ministry concerned and obtain acceptance/consent from transferee Ministry/Department. Under no circumstance, the transfer of notice of question will be effected unless and until intimation about the acceptance of the transfer of the question is received in the Secretariat from the accepting Ministry well in time i.e 10 days prior to the date of answer. Any request received thereafter shall not be entertained. As informed by the Cabinet Secretariat, if the thrust of a question pertains to a particular Ministry, it is for that Ministry to answer the question in consultation with other Ministries concerned.

Ministry/Department responsible for answering of questions
The Secretariat receives a number of representations from various Ministries/Departments indicating that the subject matter of the notices of question have been marked erroneously and sometime return such notices to the Question Branch. In this context, it may be stated that it is the prerogative and exclusive right of the Hon’ble Member to designate the Minister for answering of question. To guide Members, a booklet “Demarcation of Responsibilities in Government of India”, containing the subjects for which various Ministries/Departments are responsible for answering questions has been hosted on Homepage of Lok Sabha. This booklet is based on notifications issued by the Cabinet Secretariat from time to time. Only in case of patent errors, Lok Sabha Secretariat intervenes and corrects the nomenclature of the Ministry in consultation with the concerned Ministry/Department.

Under no circumstance, the notice of question should be returned to the Secretariat. The Ministry/Department should follow the prescribed procedure as outlined above, in Para 4, for the purpose.

Circulation of Lists of Hard and Soft copies of Admitted Questions
The printed Hard copies of Lists of admitted questions for a particular day are circulated five days before the date of answer of the questions by the respective Ministries/Departments. The soft copies of admitted Questions are also made available on the website of Lok Sabha i.e. http://loksabha.nic.in six days prior to the date of answer. Corrigenda, if any, pertaining to the listed questions are issued by the Secretariat from time to time and made available on the webpage of Lok Sabha for immediate attention of the concerned Ministry/Department.

They may depute officials of not below the level of Assistant to collect copies of Lists of Questions and corrigenda from the Distribution Branch of the

Secretariat and in case of any difficulty, they may contact the EO-in-Charge of the respective Group of Question Branch.

Part-wise replies to questions
At times, it has been observed that Ministries / Departments do not furnish reply to each part of the question and instead club all the parts together and furnish a consolidated reply. In this process, specific reply to each part is sometimes lost. It is thus again emphasized that answers to the questions should be part-wise, neat and clean, legible and whenever there is any reference to any statement, etc. in the text of a reply, the same should be enclosed for ready reference.

Ministry/Department should note that replies should be prepared by referring to the text of questions as appearing in the List, and not merely taking cognizance to the index appended to the list.

Reference of website in the replies by the Ministries/Departments
It has also been noticed that some of the Ministries are quoting/referring their website in reply/replies to question(s). In such an eventuality, Members of Parliament, find it difficult to frame supplementaries during Question Hour in the absence of instant access to such information. Further, all documents/papers to be laid on the Table of the House needs to be authenticated. Since information/data hosted through website is dynamic and not static, the authentication of such papers/documents which undergo changes subsequently may not be in order.

As the Chamber of Lok Sabha is still not Wi-fi compliant, the Ministries/Departments are, therefore, advised to avoid quoting/referring their website and provide the requisite information in the replies itself. In the event, where the website information is bulky/lengthy, the same may be summarized for the benefit of the Members.

Assurances in reply to a Starred Question
As per convention developed over the years, assurances are generally not given in reply to a Starred Question. The Ministries/Departments are, therefore, advised to refrain from furnishing assurances in reply to a Starred Question. Where the Ministry feels that reply to a Starred Question shall result in Assurance only, this fact may be brought to the notice of Joint Secretary/Director-in-Charge immediately on receipt of advance notice of question. This will facilitate the Secretariat to take up the matter with the competent authority for appropriate direction in the matter.

Supply of Hard Copies of Replies to Questions
The   hard copies of      replies to questions should be sent only on A-4 size

paper with a margin of an inch and a half on the left hand side of the paper. To the extent possible, replies to questions should be furnished back-to-back with special emphasis on print. The English version of the reply should be printed on one side with the corresponding Hindi version on the other side. The print of answer should be in font size 12 (in Arial Black) printed in double space for convenient reading.

In compliance with the direction of Hon’ble Speaker, the requisite number of copies of answers along with annexures should be sent by 1500 hours positively on the working day preceding the date on which the questions are due for answer as per details given below:-

It may kindly be noted that no last minute request for change in the text/reply would be entertained, after due time. Accordingly, the Ministries/Departments are advised to furnish replies complete in all respects and without any mistake.

Soft Copies of Replies for uploading on Website.

As the replies to the questions are to be hosted on the website of Parliament

immediately after Question Hour, it is requested that the text of Questions/Answers as an ASCII text file and the Annexures containing tabular data and diagrams be sent in HTML Format to Software Unit, Computer (HW & SW) Management Branch, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Parliament Library Building, New Delhi-110001 immediately after Question Hours under intimation to the Joint Secretary/Director-in-Charge of Question Branch. Likewise, soft copies of the text of Questions/Answers in Hindi version in

Unicode Format (Mangal Font) may be sent to Hindi Information Unit, Editorial Branch, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi-110001.

It may kindly be ensured that soft copies of replies are made available, simultaneously with the hard copies immediately after Question Hour in the form and manner, outlined above.

Correcting Statement by Ministers

When a Minister desires to correct any inaccuracy in the information furnished in respect of Starred/Unstarred/Short Notice Question, he/she is required to make a statement correcting the reply in the House. In this connection, the attention of Ministry/Department is invited to Direction 16 of the Directions by the Speaker, Lok Sabha

Supply of updated list of telephone numbers etc.

Ministries/Departments are requested to supply five (5) copies of the updated list of telephone numbers (Residence/Office), Mobile Nos, addresses and E-mails of the Cabinet Minister, Minister of State, Minister with Independent Charge,P.S to Minister/Secretary and other Sr. Officers dealing with Parliamentary work in the Ministry/Department to the Question Branch before commencement of every Session. The updated list of nodal officers for Parliamentary work with aforesaid details may also be made available on the webpage of the respective Ministries/Departments for immediate reference.

ANNEXURE-II

OFFICERS DEALING WITH QUESTIONS AND THEIR CONTACT DETAILS

Smt. Reena Gopalakrishnan, Deputy Secretary

Room No. 318 Parliament House Annexe

Phones : 23035336 (O)

9868950374 (M)

23035344(Fax)

Shri B. D. Dhyani, Under Secretary, Room No. 322 Parliament House Annexe

Phones:                             23034322           (O)

23035264        (O)  23035344  (Fax)

Group-‘C’

Communications and Information Technology; Earth Sciences; External Affairs; Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation; Minority Affairs; Overseas Indian Affairs; Parliamentary Affairs; Space; Urban Development.

Prime Minister; Atomic Energy; Development of North Eastern Region; Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Railways; Science and Technology; Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Statistics & Program Implementation.
Sh. Dong Lian Thang Executive Officer

Phones:               23034322 (O)

23035264 (O)

E-mail: qbrc-lss@sansad.nic.in

Shri Krishendra Kumar Deputy Secretary Room No. 321 (Cabin), Parliament House Annexe,

Phones: 23034346       (O)

23035344       (Fax)

Shri Rakesh Bhardwaj Deputy Secretary Room No. 318 Parliament House Annexe

Phones:     23035520    (O)

23035344    (Fax)

Smt. Sunita Saxena Under Secretary Room No. 320 Parliament House Annexe

Phones:     23034320/5262  (O)

23035344    (Fax)

Group -‘D’

Coal; Drinking Water and Sanitation; New and Renewable Energy; Panchayati Raj; Power; Rural Development.

Road Transport and Highways; Shipping; Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation;

Civil Aviation; Law & Justice; Textiles.
Sh. Surender Choudhary Executive Officer

Phones: 23034320 (O)

23035262 (O)

E-mail: qbrd-lss@sansad.nic.in

Shri G.C. Dobhal Deputy Secretary, Room No. 324, Parliament House Annexe

Phones: 23034324    (O)

23035344 (Fax)

Shri Arun Kumar

Under Secretary

Room No. 321 (Cabin), Parliament House Annexe,

Phones: 23034346       (O)

23035344       (Fax)

Group – ‘E’

Defence; Finance; Information and Broadcasting; Planning.

Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturapathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH); Corporate Affairs; Health and Family Welfare; Women and Child Development.
Shri Shailendra Priyadarshi Executive Officer,

Phones:                23034323 (O)

23035265 (O)

E-mail: qbre-lss@sansad.nic.in

CHAMBER SEAT

Shri Rajpal Singh

Executive Officer

Room No. 322

Parliament House Annexe

Phones: 23034322 (O)

23035264 (O)

9868841177 (M)

Source: https://www.mea.gov.in