Last Updated on February 7, 2024 3: 15pm
Guwahati: A group of active citizens calling themselves “Concerned Citizens for Democracy” have launched a campaign titled “Make Parliament Great Again,” urging reforms to strengthen India’s parliamentary democracy.
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They believe that the current system falls short of adequately representing the people’s will and ensuring accountability.
Their comprehensive list of 15 demands addresses various aspects of parliamentary functioning, public consultations, and transparency.
The List of Demands are as follows:
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- Parliament must be in session for a minimum of 120 days in a year to ensure more debates on people’s issues
- A calendar for the Parliament sessions must be set at the beginning of the year, by a multi-party committee of MPs, to reduce uncertainties & surprises.
- A Special Session should be held annually with its agenda based on public suggestions, focusing on key issues for debate and discussion.
- The Prime Minister must address MPs’ questions for 30 minutes each week to uphold government accountability.
- Allocate one day per week during Parliament sessions for the Opposition to set the agenda, to foster collaborative governance & to avoid disruptions.
- Implement mandatory recorded votes for all Bills, with a fixed biweekly voting day, to ensure orderly and transparent legislative processes.
- Every Bill should be mandatorily reviewed by the relevant Standing Committee (normally) or an ad hoc Joint Parliament Committee (exceptionally) with obligatory public consultations to allow proper scrutiny of Bills.
- Enhance Budget scrutiny by increasing discussion time and establishing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office.
- Maintain Sansad TV’s independence and effectiveness with a governance board including MPs from diverse parties and independent experts.
- Increase MPs’ allowances for hiring research and secretarial support, empowering them to perform their duties more effectively.
- Enact the Pre-Legislative Consultation Act, making law and policy consultations compulsory at all governmental levels.
- Ensure transparency in public consultations by mandatorily disclosing all related elements, including stakeholder mapping, draft bill details and stakeholder inputs received.
- Translate all consultation documents into all official languages as per the VIIIth Schedule of the Constitution of India for wider accessibility.
- Establish a National Consultation Commission to oversee and ensure adherence to the Pre-Legislative Consultation Act.
- Designate a Consultation Officer in each department, akin to Public Information Officers (PIOs) under RTI, to manage citizen engagement and ensure compliance in consultations.
The demands for discussions have been made available here.
People connected with the campaign have urged citizens to endorse and share the demands with other concerned citizens.
They further urged the people to pick up the demands points that have been agreed upon and send it to political parties of their choice.