Indian Parliament

K. Srinivasan

2 April 2013

IITM, HSC

K. Srinivasan

Prime Point Foundation

2 April 2013 at

IITM, HSC

Indian Parliament – An overview

What we will discuss today

• An overview of Indian Parliament

• How Parliament functions?

• How to track the performance of legislators?

• Our role

How do you perceive the Parliament?

What are the constituents of Parliament

Four pillars of democracy

• Executive

• Legislature

• Judiciary

• Media

Overview of Parliament

• Indian constitution came into force from 26th Jan 1950.

• Parliament consists of President, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha

• Lok Sabha (545 members) and Rajya Sabha (245 members)

• The Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950.

• The first general elections under the new Constitution were held during the year 1951-52 and the first elected Parliament came into being in April, 1952. 

15th Lok Sabha

• The current Lok Sabha is the 15th Lok Sabha – came into being on 4th June 2009 (543 elected + 2 nominated)

• 3 Sessions every year – Budget (Feb to April), Monsoon (July & Aug) and Winter (Nov and Dec)

15th Lok Sabha

• So far 12 Sessions completed. 13th session in progress.

• 303 sittings - 2009 (54), 2010 (81) 2011 (73) and 2012 (74)

• Before 1980, average 100 working days

A day in Parliament

• 11 AM – Question hour

• 12 Noon – Zero Hour

• 2 PM to 6 PM – Government Business (In Rajya Sabha upto 5 PM)

• Members follow party line.

Debates

• Government Bills, Matters of urgent importance, Calling attention motion,

• Rule 377, 184, 193 etc.

• Upto March 2013, 15716 times

• Top 100 MPs contribute 9079 (58%)

Debates

• National Average 32.9 per member

• Arjun Ram Meghwal is topper with 386 times

• Kerala average 59.2 top among states

• Tamilnadu 41.4

Private Members Bills

• On Friday evening, Members can introduce their own bill

• Need not be party oriented

• 372 Private Bills so far

• Hansraj Gangaram Ahir 31 Bills and Arjun Ram 20 Bills

Questions

• Starred and Unstared

• Though 20 listed for oral answers, around 6 or 7 only answered.

• So far 1.22,081 questions answered. Top 100 Members raised 61,017 Questions (50%)

Questions

• Anandarao Adsul (1055) and Gajanan Babar (977) are toppers.

• National average 255

• Maharashtra 424 tops

• Tamilnadu 325

Attendance

• Every member is expected to sign the attendance (Ministers and opposition leaders exempted)

• Attendance National average 77%

• Rajasthan tops with 88%

• Tamilnadu 74%

Some of the challenges

• Disruption in Parliament – In 2012 36% of allotted time was lost

• 31 bills were introduced in 2012 and 22 only passed.

• At the end of 2012, 104 bills remain uncleared

Challenges

• Eleven bills were passed in 2012 with less than 30 minutes debate

• Only 10% of starred questions were answered orally.

• Frequent disruptions in Question Hour.

MPLads

• Local Area Development Fund of Rs.2 crores to all MPs

• Implemented by District collectors, on the instructions of the MPs

How to track the performance?• Participation in debates, raising

questions, introduction or private members bills and attendance.

• Utilisation of MPLad funds

• Contribution to the constituency / nation

Our role

• Connect with the legislators.

• Assessing the performance

• Healthy partnership of the people with legislators

Important websites

• www.loksabha.nic.in

• www.rajayasabha.nic.in

• www.prsindia.org

• www.sansadratna.in

• www.mplads.nic.in

Interaction with a top performing MP

Q and A

Thank you

K. Srinivasan

Prime Point Foundation

www.prpoint.com

prpoint@gmail.com

91766 50273