Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday expressed his displeasure over the low attendance of MPs in the meetings of the parliamentary standing committees and urged the leaders of the political parties to ensure "quantitative and qualitative functioning" of these panels.
Pulling up the absentees, Naidu, who held a meeting with the chairpersons of these panels, said only 18 members each from both houses of Parliament attended eight Rajya Sabha committees’ meetings since being reconstituted in September this year.
Sharing concern about the functioning of these committees in the Upper House, Naidu said: "I expect the number of members of this House with full attendance in the meetings of the committees to rise."
Each member of the department-related standing committee represents 25 members of Parliament while deliberating in the committee. If one member is absent, the voice of 25 MPs would not be heard, according to Naidu.
He said the Rajya Sabha’s eight department-related standing committees (DRSCs), which were reconstituted in September, had held a total of 41 meetings since then.
An analysis of attendance in all these 41 meetings revealed a "disturbing Trend," he remarked and said on these eight committees, a total of 80 members of Rajya Sabha are represented. Out of these 80 members, 18 members have attended all the meetings of respective committees since September, he said.
Similarly, 18 of the total 168 Lok Sabha members represented on these eight committees have also attended all the meetings.
To motivate other members, Naidu listed out the names of 18 members of the Upper House who had 100 per cent attendance in the meetings of Parliamentary panels. However, a Congress member said the listed names were chairpersons.