Empty Chairs At The Parliamentary Consultative Committee On Communications Meet
11 Out Of 18 Members Skip Parliamentary Committee Meet On Communications
The Parliamentary consultative committee on communications was slotted to discuss a rather contentious issue, that of radiation from mobile towers and its effect on public health. But with just 7 out of the 18 members, turning up for the meet, it’s safe to say that it wasn’t a roaring success.
The committee chaired by the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry Of Communications, Manoj Sinha, comprises of 14 members from the Lok Sabha and 4 members from the Rajya Sabha. The Ministers of state for Parliamentary affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and S.S. Ahluwalia are also ex-officio members, none of whom were present either.
According to the handbook on the Working of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, consultative committees for members of Parliament provide sitting members the opportunity to have a glimpse into the workings of the government. The handbook notes that the main objective of these committees is to provide a forum for informal discussion between Members of Parliament, on the one hand, and ministers and senior government officers on the other hand on a wide range of matters including policies, principles and programmes of the Government and the manner of implementation.
The 7 members who did turn up for the meeting were all from the Lok Sabha. They were Arvind Ganpat Sawant (Shiv Sena), Bhola Singh (BJP), Darshana Vikram Jardosh (BJP), Gaurav Gogoi (Congress), Dr Nepal Singh (BJP), Parayamparanbil Kuttappan Biju (CPI,Marxist) and Rabindra Kumar Jena (BJD).
Their peers in the lower house of Parliament who weren’t present at the meeting were Akshay Yadav (SP), Devusinh Jesingbhai Chauhan (BJP), Dr K Gopal (AIADMK), Dr Mriganka Mahato (TMC), Paresh Rawal (BJP), Ranjanben Bhatt (BJP), and Vijay Kumar S R (AIADMK). Neither did any of four Rajya Sabha members turn up.