Parliament panels may soon hire private interns
Parliament could soon rope in young scholars to work with the standing committees as interns.
Following the example of the US, Canada and the UK, where students and research scholars get an opportunity to work with parliamentary panels, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is pushing for the induction of interns in the parliamentary standing committees. She held a meeting on January 31 with around 16 of the 24 panel heads, who supported the idea but expressed concerns over maintaining secrecy of the proceedings or the documents available with the panel.
“It is a good idea but secrecy is a concern,” said a panel chairman, who did not wish to be named.
Sources said a way out could be that these interns are attached to the offices of the panel chairpersons, who can ask them to prepare background reports on specific topics, while keeping them away from the proceedings.
The whole idea, said sources, was to make private sector talent available to the parliamentary system and give an exposure of parliamentary democracy to the students.
Subject-specific panels are critical for the smooth functioning of Parliament and act like a mini-House, comprising members from various political parties. As the meetings are in camera, the panel meetings are hardly disrupted by the members, unlike in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The standing committees examine the annual budgets of various ministries, produce insightful reports on issues mutually identified between the treasury and the opposition lawmakers and review key Bills.
Usually, Budget proposals are presented in the Lok Sabha in the first half of the budget session and the Finance Bill is debated and passed in the second half. The standing committees become active during the month-long recess, thus saving crucial time for the main Houses. These panels function even when the Parliament is disrupted.