Do Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees keep the administration on its toes and inspire reverence for parliamentary control? Evaluate the working of such committees with suitable examples.

From three Standing Committees on Agriculture, Science and Technology and Agriculture in 1989. Seeing their usefulness in ensuring government’s accountability, Parliament in 1993 constituted 17 Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRPSCs) and later increased its strength to 24. Presently, 16 DRPSCs function under the Lok Sabha Speaker and 8 DRPSCc functions under the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

DRPSC makes the Executive more Accountable by Considering and Examining:

• Demands for grants of the related Ministries/Departments – but does not consider cut motions.
• Bills of the related Ministries/ Departments referred by the Chairman or the Speaker and submit their report.
• Annual reports of respective Ministries/Departments.  
• National basic long term policy documents presented to the Houses and referred to the Committee by the Chairman or the Speaker. Examples – Report of DRPSC

• PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES, LAW AND JUSTICE – identified the shortcomings and suggested measures to facilitate effective and efficient redressal of public grievances. Suggested to forward grievances to state governments received on CPGRAMS.
• Various Bills such as MEDIATION BILL 2021, WILDLIFE PROTECTION AMENDMENT BILL and ANTI DOPING BILL has also been referred to respective DRPSCs.
• In its Report on ELECTRIC & HYBRID MOBILITY – PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY – the committee considered suggestions from industry and stakeholders – SIAM, ACMA, Automobile companies etc. – suggested to scale up transition process to electric mobility.

However, there have been certain issues with the functioning of DRPSC:

• Shorter tenure of 1 year is inadequate
• Delay in constitution of the committees
• Consideration of demand for grants within a fixed period after discussions on demand for grant.  
• Reports of the Committees have persuasive value and are not binding

Despite the concerns, DRPSCs have made the executive more accountable through its various reports which have helped the government to take suitable actions.