GS2 · 10 marks · 150 words

Discuss the role of the Department Related Standing Committee (DRSC) system in improving parliamentary effectiveness.

Answered by 5 toppers · CSE 2023–2025

Syllabus: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.

How toppers approached it

From all 5 answers · about 120 words · 40% drew a diagram.

Opening

  • No separate opening40%
  • A date or context20%
  • A definition20%
  • A quotation20%

Body

  • Points80%
  • Points and prose20%

Close

  • A way forward40%
  • No separate close20%
  • A source20%
  • A summary20%

The toppers’ answers

Shakti DubeyAIR 1 · CSE 2024 · 180 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening

Parliamentary committees are one of the device available with legislature to scrutinise the executive and keep a check on their proposals & laws.

Role of Department related standing committees :-

Body · points

(1) Parliament has currently 24 DRSC (2) each committee has 31 members from both Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha (3) These are elected from within the house - usually ministers do not represent these committee (4) Their role is to scrutinise the bills and other proposal brought by the executive (5) This helps in detailed analysis

and ensure checks and balances. (6) Their role find significance in ensuring effectiveness of parliamentary proposal.

Issues & challenges :-

(1) According to PRS data - the referral of bills to committees in recent times has declined from 33% (16th Lok Sabha) → 16% (17th Lok Sabha) (2) This represents the evasion of parliamentary procedure (3) This raises question on credibility of the parliament (4) Decrease in scrutiny leads to increased in authoritarianisms

Close · a source

Thus DRSCs have a very important role in parliamentary committee. As suggested by 2nd ARC - speaker should ensure its effectiveness.

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Structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers, privileges and committees.

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