Online monitoring system for parliamentary assurances

Minister of State (MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel on Wednesday inaugurated the Online Assurances Monitoring System (OAMS), developed by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry (MoPA).

This system has made the information regarding assurances given on the floor of the Houses of Parliament paperless and available in digital format.

Ministers, while giving replies to questions or making statements in Parliament, give assurances on the floor of the House. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs culls out such assurances from the House proceedings and sends the extract of those assurances to the concerned ministries for their fulfilment.

"With the inauguration of OAMS, all assurances being culled out by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs through e-Office would be reflected on this system and various ministries/ departments, and Lok Sabha Secretariat and Rajya Sabha Secretariat would communicate for all purposes through this system," Goel said.

This would encompass various actions related to Parliamentary Assurances including sending implementation reports, request for dropping, request for extension and decision etc. Any physical communication would not be accepted from now on, he said.

"A number of problems arise in the process of fulfilment of assurances due to human factors and non-compliance of guidelines. Three different modules in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs were running, leading to mismatch of data.

"Hence, the need arose for an online assurances monitoring system to track the exact status of pending assurances and expedite their fulfilment," the Minister said.

Since 2007, a total of 26,830 assurances given by the ministers on the floor of the Houses were culled out by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, out of which 21,439 assurances have been fulfilled and 1,903 dropped, leaving a total of 3,488 assurances still pending for compliance.

--IANS

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