Question 1 · 10 marks · 180 words written
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.