The Hindu : National : Process begins for setting up housing, business advisory panels

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

National

National

Process begins for setting up housing, business advisory panels

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi. June 8. The Centre is determined to ensure that both Houses of Parliament finish the official business of completing the discussion on the President's motion of thanks, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said today.

He also expressed the hope that Lok Sabha would function normally tomorrow morning when the election of the Deputy Speaker was scheduled to take place.

The allotment of houses to the members will begin shortly with the setting up of a housing committee in Parliament. According to Mr. Azad, the Speaker has already set in motion the process of setting up the Housing Committee and the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) for both the Houses.

The Housing Committee allots Government accommodation for MPs and Ministers and, given the large number of new members this time, there is a scramble for houses. Most of the new MPs have either been put up in their State's guesthouses or in the Government-owned Janpath hotel.

The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) is a consultative body comprising leaders from political parties represented in the House and helps the Speaker and the Government draw up the agenda to be taken up by the House. According to Mr Azad, the Speaker is considering the names suggested by different political parties and an announcement regarding the composition of the committee is expected in the next few days. Political parties with more than five MPs in the House are expected to find a berth in the BAC.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister has also begun the process of setting up consultative committees for various Ministries. The Standing committees is likely to take some time. There are 17 such committees and some of them overlap.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government had mooted merger of some committees and the Congress had supported the idea. But implementation could take time as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha would have to take a view, Mr. Azad said.

The Government would like all standing committees to be in place by the start of the next session when the Budget is to be presented as they have a role to play in discussing in detail the budgets of individual Ministries.

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