Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs

About Ministry

• Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs handles affairs relating to the Parliament of India, and works as a link between the two chambers, the Lok Sabha (“House of the People,” the lower house) and the Rajya Sabha (“Council of States,” the upper house). It was created in 1949 as a department but later became a full ministry.
• The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers.
• The Ministry keeps a close contact with the Ministries/Departments of the Government in respect of Bills pending in the Parliament, new Bills to be introduced and Bills to replace Ordinances. The Ministry keeps a watch over the progress of Bills from the stage of approval by the Cabinet till the Bill is passed by both Houses of the Parliament.
• To act as an efficient facilitator to constantly improve Government’s interaction with Parliament by:-
  • • Planning, coordinating and monitoring Government’s business in Parliament.
    • Helping Ministries/Departments to effectively carry out their Parliamentary work.
    • Responding actively and effectively on behalf of the Government in respect of directions, resolutions etc. of a general nature made to the Government by the Houses of Parliament.
    • Constituting and arranging meetings of Consultative Committees of Members of Parliament for Ministries.
    • Taking initiatives through organizing of conferences, programs, etc. for increasing awareness about the Parliamentary system with a view to strengthening the roots of democracy.
    • Administering policies relating to Salaries, facilities and welfare related matters of Members of Parliament.
    • Coordinating Ministries/Departments for implementation of assurances given by Ministers in both the Houses of Parliament-culling out of assurances from the debates; monitoring the state of fulfillment thereof and laying of Implementation reports before the Houses. To propagate ideas of democracy.

 

NATIONAL YOUTH PARLIAMENT SCHEME

Objective

• • to increase the outreach of the youth parliament programme of the Ministry to hitherto untouched sections and corners of the country.
  • to strengthen the roots of democracy, inculcate healthy habits of discipline, tolerance of the view of others and to enable the student community to know about practices and procedures of the Parliament.

Salient Features

• • All recognized educational institutions of the country are eligible to participate in the ‘Portal Based Youth Parliament Programme’.
  • The subjects to be selected for discussion in Youth Parliament should be as far as possible non-controversial. Matters raised in the Youth Parliament may relate to the subjects of welfare activities, defence of the country, social justice, social reforms, economic development, communal harmony, education, govt. welfare schemes, health, student’s discipline etc. No direct or indirect remarks may be made in the speeches so as to cast aspersion on the political parties or leaders/ persons etc. Every year a common theme on Government policies and programmes may be fixed for Youth Parliament.
  • The salient features of the portal are: –
    • • All recognised educational institutions of the country are eligible to participate in this programme.
      • The registration for participation will be done by the education institutions through the web-portal.
      • E-training modules, videos, photographs and scripts are available on the portal for online self-learning of the participants.
      • After successful registration, the educational institutions will be able to conduct youth parliament sittings in their respective institutions.
      • Each student taking part in the sitting will get a Digital ‘Certificate of Participation’ and each Teacher-in-charge and Head of Institution will get a ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ through the web portal.
  • This portal will give shape to Prime Minister’s vision of organizing youth parliaments in all parts of the country.
  • The web-portal of the National Youth Parliament Scheme is available at nyps.mpa.gov.in.

 

NATIONAL E-VIDHAN APPLICATION

• It is a Mission Mode Project (MMP)comes under the Digital India Programme.
• Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (MoPA) is the ‘Nodal Ministry’ for its implementation in all the 31 States/UTs with Legislatures.
• The funding for e-Vidhan is provided by the MoPA and technical support by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MietY).
• The funding of NeVA is through Central Sponsored Scheme i.e. 60:40; and 90:10 for North East & hilly States and 100% for UTs.

Objectives

• • It aims to bring all the legislatures of the country together, in one platform thereby creating a massive data depository without having the complexity of multiple applications.

Salient Features

• • Paperless Assembly or e-Assembly is a concept involving of electronic means to facilitate the work of Assembly.
  • It enables automation of entire law making process, tracking of decisions and documents, sharing of information.
  • Through the cloud technology (Meghraj), data deployed can be accessed anywhere at any time.
  • The live webcasting of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV is also available on this application.
  • Doordarshan has already been enabled with provision to incorporate similar facility in respect of State Legislatures.
  • Himachal Pradesh is already the first Digital Legislature of the country.

 

 

To read and learn about Government Schemes and Programs related to other Ministries, Click Here. (Notes on all Government Ministries Schemes and Programs)