Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 23: In a maiden meeting of its kind, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Syed Basharat Bukhari today underlined proper coordination between the departments and Assembly/ Council Secretariat essential for smooth conduct of business in the Legislature during ensuing budget session.
The high level meeting was attended by Administrative Secretaries and Director General of Police besides other senior officers of Assembly and Council Secretariat.
During the meeting, the Minister spoke of his experience over the years regarding certain issues that have always existed with regard to questions and their replies on part of the departments as well as Assembly/ Council Secretariats. He added that all such issues are required to be addressed because smooth conduct of business in the Legislature ultimately both directly or indirectly pertains to people and is meant for their welfare.
The Minister said keeping this in view and to ensure that during the forthcoming session all questions raised by the Legislators are appropriately replied to and all members get a chance to speak on such issues of public importance, it is essential that certain timelines are fixed. He directed Secretary Assembly to ensure that the questions reach their respective departments by a fixed date so that the departments at their end get adequate time to prepare consolidated replies. He also asked the Administrative Secretaries to ensure that the replies in turn, reach the Assembly/Council Secretariat in time.
Highlighting the importance of such timelines, the Minister said that efforts must be made to adhere to these, so that the session is smoothly conducted and all important public issues are adequately discussed and decided.
Various other issues pertaining to the Budget Session including questions, replies, cut motions, demand grants, calling attention notice, etc were also discussed in detail.
Use of Information Technology to facilitate the process during the session was also examined in the meeting.