37. TABLE OFFICE 37.1 Main Responsibilities:

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "37. TABLE OFFICE 37.1 Main Responsibilities:"

Melanie Logan
5 years ago
Views:

1 37. TABLE OFFICE 37.1 Main Responsibilities: The Table Office is primarily concerned with the day-to-day business of the House. The main subjects dealt with in the Section during the year 2011 were: - i) Preparation of List of Business. ii) Laying of Papers on the Table of the House. iii) Statements by Ministers. iv) Parliamentary Bulletin Part-I. v) Co-ordination work relating to issue of Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II. vi) Business Advisory Committee. vii) Preparation of daily Memorandum of Business for the Hon'ble Chairman, Hon'ble Deputy Chairman, Secretary-General and other Officers at the Table. viii) Preparation of a Statement showing names of Office-bearers of various Parties/ Groups. ix) Statement showing Party-position in the Rajya Sabha. x) Preparation of Alphabetical List of Members of the Rajya Sabha. xi) Allocation of seats to Members in the Chamber. xii) Oath/Affirmation by Members. xiii) Divisions in the House. xiv) Roll of Members. xv) Resignation by Members, vacation of seats and filling up of casual vacancies. xvi) Obituary references. xvii) References by the Chair on important national and international events. xviii) Preparation and issue of the publication entitled List of Members of Rajya Sabha showing, inter alia, permanent and Delhi Addresses and Telephone Numbers of the Members of Rajya Sabha. xix) Issue of Membership Certificate to the ex-members to enable them to avail pension, CGHS facility, etc. xx) Biennial/Bye-elections/Nominations to the Rajya Sabha. xxi) Issue of congratulatory letters to the newly elected/nominated Members. xxii) Good wishes to retiring Members. xxiii) Announcements by the Chairman. xxiv) Reconstitution of Panel of Vice-Chairmen, Rajya Sabha. xxv) Preparation and issue of the publication entitled Resume' of the Business transacted by the Rajya Sabha after each of its Session. xxvi) Maintenance of Minutes Book of the Proceedings of the House. xxvii) Maintenance of the Register of Roll of Members and Member s Index Cards. xxviii) Maintenance of the Register of Obituary References/References made in the House. xxix) Maintenance of Register of Form-III and Form-IV of Members, as per Rule 4 and Rule 5 (1) of the Members of Rajya Sabha (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, xxx) Maintenance/updation of Precedents Register and updation of the Precedents Management System on the Rajya Sabha Website. xxxi) Data feeding of Members/ex-Members information in MIS Software. xxxii) Preparation of Statements showing the "Statistical Information" and "Highlights of the work - At a Glance" transacted during each Session. xxxiii) Cases dealt with under the Right to Information Act, xxxiv) Absence of Ministers during Session of Rajya Sabha xxxv) Compilation and preparation of the pamphlet entitled Rajya Sabha-A Fact Sheet. xxxvi) Updation of information related to Table Office on the Rajya Sabha Website. xxxvii) Updation and compilation of the publication entitled General Information for Members of Rajya Sabha. xxxviii) Review and Weeding out of old files/records. 225

2 xxxix) Updation of information concerning Members of Rajya Sabha through Officers/Section Login system. xl) Compilation of data for micro-filming of old records Sessions of the Rajya Sabha: There were three Sessions of the Rajya Sabha during the year 2011 i.e., 222 nd, 223 rd and 224 th Session. Details regarding duration, etc. of these are given below: Session Date of Commencement Date of termination Total No. of Sittings No. of days with late sittings Actual hours of sitting (excluding lunch break) Hrs. Mts. Days Hrs. Mts. 222 nd rd th Obituary References: 31 Obituary References (8 in 222 nd, 16 in 223 rd and 7 in 224 th Session) in respect of the sitting/ex-members of Rajya Sabha and important national personalities were prepared and made in the House References by the Chairman: 19 References (4 each in 222 nd and 223 rd Session and 11 in 224 th Session) on different subjects were prepared and made in the House Retirement of Members: In accordance with the provisions of clause (1) of article 83 of the Constitution, 10 Members (Goa-1, West Bengal 6 and Gujarat-3) of the Rajya Sabha retired on the completion of their term of office during the year A Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II showing the names of Members of Rajya Sabha retiring on the expiration of their term of office during the year was issued on the 1 st April, 2011 for information of Members Biennial Elections to the Rajya Sabha: The Notifications issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department) in connection with the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha and programme of elections received from the Election Commission of India were reproduced in Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II for information of Members. In the biennial elections held during the year 2011, 10 Members from the States of Goa, West Bengal and Gujarat were elected/re-elected to the Rajya Sabha. All these Members made and subscribed oath/affirmation in the Rajya Sabha Chamber and entries relating to elections of these Members were made in the Register Bye-elections to the Rajya Sabha: 6 Members namely, Shrimati Hema Malini (Karnataka), Shri Meghraj Jain (Madhya Pradesh), Shri A. W. Rabi Bernard (Tamil Nadu), Shri Husain Dalwai (Maharashtra), Shri Sabir Ali (Bihar) and Shri Pankaj Bora (Assam) were got elected to the Rajya Sabha in the bye-elections held to fill the casual vacancies, which occurred during the year. All these Members made and subscribed oath/affirmation in the Rajya Sabha Chamber and entries relating to elections of these Members were made in the Register Congratulations to newly elected Members: Congratulatory letters were issued to all newly elected/re-elected Members, after receiving their declaration of results from the Returning Officers concerned Vacation of Seats: i) Death: Three seats became vacant due to the demise of Members, namely, Shri Arjun Singh (Madhya Pradesh), Dr. Ram Dayal Munda (Nominated), and Shri Silvius Condpan (Assam). Entries relating thereto were made in the register. A copy each of the Notifications were also sent to the Election Commission of India for necessary action. ii) Resignation: Three seats became vacant due to resignation by Members, namely, Shri Prithviraj Chavan (Maharashtra), Shri K. V. Ramalingam (Tamil Nadu) and 226

3 Shri Sabir Ali (Bihar). The necessary entries relating to their resignations were made in the register. A copy each of the Notifications were also sent to the Election Commission of India for necessary action Panel of Vice-Chairmen: The Chairman, Rajya Sabha nominated/re-nominated the following Members on the Panel of Vice-Chairmen on the 1 st August, 2011:- i) Prof. P. J. Kurien ii) Dr. E. M. Sudarsana Natchiappan iii) Shri Kalraj Mishra iv) Shri Prasanta Chatterjee v) Shri Tariq Anwar vi) Dr. Mahendra Prasad The announcement regarding nomination/re-nomination of the Members on the Panel of Vice-Chairmen was made by the Deputy Chairman in the Rajya Sabha on the 2 nd August, List of Business: 218 Lists of Business, Papers to be Laid on the Table etc. as detailed below were issued in connection with the Sessions of the Rajya Sabha during the year:- Session Papers to be Laid on the Table Main List of Business Revised List of Business Supplementary List of Business 222 nd rd th The final CRC versions of Lists of Business and Lists of Papers to be Laid on the Table are now placed directly on internet by the Section itself w.e.f. 212 th Session of Rajya Sabha. The CRC version of the List of Business and Lists of Papers to be Laid on the Table are also sent to the Government Press electronically through along with hard copy of the final CRCs Meetings of the Business Advisory Committee: 15 meetings of the Business Advisory Committee (4 in 222 nd, 6 in 223 rd and 5 in 224 th Session) were held to allocate time for Government Legislative and other Business. The House was informed by the Presiding Officers about the allocation of time recommended by the Committee. Minutes of the meetings of the Business Advisory Committee were prepared, got approved and circulated Papers Laid on the Table: 4853 papers were laid on the Table of the House during the year (1452 in 222 nd, 1606 in 223 rd, and 1795 in 224 th Session). All these papers except Notifications were received and processed by this Section Statements by Ministers: 86 Statements (29 in 222 nd, 30 in 223 rd and 27 in 224 th Session) including Statements regarding Government Business were made/laid in the House by Ministers during the year Memorandum of Business: Memorandum of Business were prepared for 73 sittings (23 in 222 nd, 26 in 223 rd and 24 in 224 th Session) for use of Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Secretary- General and other Officers at the Table Cases under the Right to Information Act, 2005: During the year under review, 63 applications from various persons were received from the RTI Cell. The replies to the queries raised by the applicants were prepared and sent to the CPIO, well in time, for onward transmission to the concerned person Statements showing the "Statistical Information" and "Highlights of the work - At a Glance" : Statements showing the "Statistical Information" and "Highlights of the work" transacted 227

4 during each Session were prepared for making valedictory remarks by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha before concluding each Session of the Rajya Sabha. The approved copy each of these Statements were circulated to the Members of Rajya Sabha and also provided to Media Education and Audio Visual Unit for distribution to the Press and Media persons. The statements were also uploaded on the Website Membership Certificate: 48 Membership Certificates were issued in favour of Ex-Members of the Rajya Sabha to enable them to avail pension and CGHS facilities, etc Parliamentary Bulletins: Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Part-I Nos to 4964 containing brief record of proceedings of the meetings of the Rajya Sabha held during the year under review, were prepared, got approved, printed and issued. Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II Nos to were also got printed and issued during the year. The final CRC version of Parliamentary Bulletin (Part-I) is now placed directly on the Internet by the Section itself w.e.f. 212 th Session of Rajya Sabha (November-December, 2007). The CRC version of Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II is also placed on Internet directly w.e.f. 193 rd Session of the Rajya Sabha (July-August, 2001). The CRC version of Parliamentary Bulletins (Part-I and Part-II) is also sent to the Government Press electronically through along with hard copy of the final CRCs Division: During the year under review, twelve divisions (6 in 222 nd Session, 1 in 223 rd Session and 5 in 224 th Session) were held in the Rajya Sabha Absence of Ministers during Session of Rajya Sabha : Statement showing the Ministerwise details of requests received for deputing some other Minister to attend to the business of the concerned Minister during his/her absence from the House during each Session of Rajya Sabha held in the year 2011 was prepared for information and record Resume of the Business Transacted by the Rajya Sabha: Resume of the Business transacted by the Rajya Sabha during the 222 nd and 223 rd Sessions were prepared, got printed and circulated amongst the Members of the Rajya Sabha, State Legislatures and Officers and Sections of the Secretariat. The final CRC versions of the Resume were also uploaded on the Website. The manuscript of the publication for the 224 th Session is currently under preparation. After approval, the final CRC manuscript of the publication would be forwarded to Printing Section-I for printing List of Members: During the year under review, the publication entitled List of Members, Rajya Sabha (April 4,,2011 edition) showing permanent and Delhi addresses and telephone numbers, etc. of Members was prepared, got printed and circulated to all Members of the Rajya Sabha, State Legislatures, Officers and Sections of the Secretariat. Keeping in view the recommendations of the Committee on Reduction in use of paper in functioning of the Sections/Branches of the Secretariat made on the 13 th May, 2011 the printing of the publication was limited to once in a year from the existing practice of twice a year General Information for Members of Rajya Sabha: The booklet entitled General Information for Members of Rajya Sabha last brought out by the Section in March, 2010 was updated with the help of inputs from concerned sections. The booklet would be circulated to the newly elected/nominated Members of Rajya Sabha during the year Other Lists: During the year, following Lists were prepared as indicated against each:- Party-Position in the Rajya Sabha 12 Alphabetical List of Members 12 Division List 04 Attendance Register 04 The Section also prepared Seating Arrangement Charts for use of Hon ble Chairman, Secretary-General and others, prior to commencement of each Session. 228

5 37.26 Rajya Sabha A Fact Sheet: A pamphlet entitled Rajya Sabha A Fact Sheet containing comparative information at a glance in respect of both Houses of Parliament, i.e., Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha was prepared (for official use only) Maintenance and updation of Precedents Register and updation of Precedents Management System : As usual, precedent entries in the Precedents Register were recorded manually. Thereafter, all the entries recorded manually in the precedents register were also entered into the software. The system is available on the website of Rajya Sabha with restricted access Review and Weeding out of old files/records : The old files pertaining to the year 2003 were reviewed and the files having no retention value, were weeded out after approval. Further, as directed by the Secretary-General, the old Sessional folders containing Memorandum of Business pertaining to the period from 1981 to 1990 were also reviewed. The contents/pages of the folders having some future reference value were kept in a Guard File and rest of the contents/pages having no retention value, were destroyed after approval Updation of information concerning Members of Rajya Sabha through Officers/Section Login system : Information regarding permanent/local address and telephone numbers, addresses, etc. of Members received on-line through new software Officers/Section Login was updated regularly SMS Utility : The new software introduced by NIC was utilized by the section for sending SMS alert to Members regarding meetings of the Business Advisory Committee Compilation of data for micro-filming of old records : On the request of the Sales and Archives Section, the old records (Category V) pertaining to of the Section, having archival value and future usage was assessed and identified for micro-filming and retaining them in small discs. A list of such documents with names of the files/records and the approximate number of pages they contain, was provided to Sales and Archives Section for examining the possibility of micro-filming of the same Status of Computerization: Table Office has been fully computerized and working efficiently since This Section has been preparing camera-ready copies of List of Business, List of Papers to be Laid on the Table, Parliamentary Bulletins (Part-I and Part-II) and Resume of the Business transacted during each Session. The CRC version of List of Business, List of Papers to be Laid on the Table and Parliamentary Bulletins are sent to Translation Section and the Government Press through . Lists of Business, Lists of Papers to be Laid on the Table and Parliamentary Bulletins (Part-I and Part-II) are also uploaded directly on the Internet Updation of Rajya Sabha Website: This Section is responsible for updation of the following information on the Rajya Sabha Website:- i) Lists of Business ii) Parliamentary Bulletin Part -I iii) Parliamentary Bulletin Part II iv) Papers to be Laid on the Table v) Publication entitled Resume of the business transacted during each Session of the Rajya Sabha vi) List of sitting Members showing their names, party-affiliation, State, Addresses, telephone numbers, Division Number etc. through Members Information System (MIS). vii) Party-position in the Rajya Sabha. viii) Presiding Officers of Rajya Sabha ix) General Information for Members x) Disqualification of Members on Ground of Defection xi) Valedictory Address and Statistical Information 229

6 xii) Precedents Management System Goals and Analysis: The basic nature of the work allotted to this Section pertains to dayto-day business of the House. In view of this, it is difficult to set goals in physical terms for the Section because most of the work assigned depends on many external factors, which are beyond the control of the Section. However, it has always been the endeavour of the Section to discharge all its responsibilities promptly and efficiently. With total computerization and coordinated efforts of the Section, this was achieved quite successfully Inspection Report: The inspection of the Section for the year 2010 was done by Shri S. Jason, Joint Director, on the 31 st January, The inspection of the work transacted in Hindi in the Section was also done by Shri Prem Kumar, Assistant Director (E&T) on the 11 th February, Training: During the year, the following Officials of the Section attended various training programmes organised by the Training Unit/NIC, etc. as detailed below:- Sr. No. Name and Designation Programme 1. Ms. Chitra G., Assistant Director 2. Shri Suman Dutta, Legislative Assistant 3. Shri Pramod Singh Rawat, Senior Clerk 4. Shri Gaurav Sharma, Junior Clerk 5. Shri Uttam Kr. Dutta, Junior Clerk ( Since resigned ) Customized Management Development Programme, (IIM, Indore) Workshop on Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) Training Programme on Members Login Application SMS Utility -do- Parliament Practice & Procedures -do- 230

6. COMMITTEE SECTION (MPLADS)

6. COMMITTEE SECTION (MPLADS) 6.1 Main functions of the Committee Section (MPLADS):- The Committee Section (MPLADS) provides the Secretarial assistance to the Committee on MPLADS, Rajya Sabha, which is