Lok Sabha questions, and answers, will be soon made available to all over the internet. (File)
All questions asked in the Lok Sabha, and the replies given to them, will now be made available online for everyone according to a direction by the Cabinet Secretariat. The decision was taken after the Lok Sabha secretariat complained about delays in the filing of replies to questions by central government ministries.
Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha said: "Soft copies of replies to starred questions will be uploaded by 10 am on the day the questions are listed, so members can draft supplementary questions. Replies to un-starred questions will be uploaded immediately after Question Hour, at noon."
Under existing rules hard copies of replies to all questions are required to be forwarded by the ministries or departments to the Lok Sabha secretariat by 3:00 pm a day before the question is listed in the parliament. The replies are also to be uploaded online - on www.pqals.nic.in - the next day.
However, government ministries and departments often did not follow the rules, which is why the secretariat issued the new guidelines. Mr Sinha said that secretaries had been instructed to ensure "strict compliance" of the new rules from the forthcoming Winter Session, later this year.
Ministers must reply to starred questions -- which are distinguished by an asterisk mark - themselves and legislators can also ask supplementary questions to starred questions. In case of un-starred questions, the minister does not need to answer the question orally, and there can be no follow-up questions.