Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office. (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)
(a) to (e): The paragraph No.63 of the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP) deals with the subject of correspondence with Members of Parliament and 66 deals with giving of a prompt reply to the letters received. The provisions are as under:
Paragraph No.63: Correspondence with Members of Parliament—
(1) Communications received from Members of Parliament should be attended to promptly.
(2) Where a communication is addressed to a Minister, it should, as far as practicable,be replied to by the Minister himself. In other cases, a reply should normally be issued over the signature of an officer of the rank of Secretary only.
(3) Where, however, a communication is addressed to the head of an attached or subordinate office, Public Sector Undertakings, Financial Institutions (including nationalized banks) Division/ Branch In charge in a Ministry/Department/Organisation, it should be replied to by the addressee himself. In routine matters, he may send an appropriate reply on his own. In policy matters, however, the officer should have prior approval of higher authorities before sending a reply. It should, however, be ensured that the minimum level at which such replies are sent to Members of Parliament is that of Under Secretary and that also in a polite letter form only.
(4) Normally information sought by a Member should be supplied unless it is of such a nature that it would have been denied to him even if asked for on the floor of the Houses of Parliament.
(5) As far as possible, in corresponding with Members of Parliament, pre-printed or cyclostyled replies should be avoided.
(6) In case a reference from an ex-Member of Parliament is addressed to a Minister or Secretary, reply to such reference may be sent by the concerned Divisional Head after obtaining approval of the Secretary of the Ministry/Department. In case the reference is addressed to a lower level officer, reply to such reference could be sent by the officer on his own in non- policy cases and after obtaining approval of the higher authorities in policy cases. However, the lowest level at which reply could be sent, should be that of an Under Secretary and that too in a polite letter form only.
Paragraph No.66: Prompt response to letters received—
(1) Each communication received from a Member of Parliament, member of the public, recognized association or a public body will be acknowledged within 15 days, followed by a reply within the next 15 days of acknowledgement sent.
(2) Where (i) delay is anticipated in sending a final reply, or (ii) information has to be obtained from another Ministry or another office, an interim reply will be sent within a month (from the date of receipt) indicating the possible date by which a final reply can be given.
(3) If any such communication is wrongly addressed to a department, it will be transferred promptly (within a week) to the appropriate department under intimation to the party concerned.
(4) Where the request of a member of the public cannot be acceded to for any reason, reasons for not acceding to such a request should be given courteously.
(5) As far as possible, requests from members of public, should be looked at from the user`s point of view and not solely from the point of view of what may be administratively convenient.
Paragraph No.127 of the CSMOP deals with the subject of watching on disposal of communication received from Members of Parliament at various levels of functionary in the Government of India. A register in this regard is also required to be maintained by all offices and reviewed periodically.
In so far as the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances is concerned, it has been writing to all the Ministries/Departments on a regular basis stressing on the need of promptly dealing with the letters received from Members of Parliament at various levels. On 05.11.2011, the then Minister of State(PP) had written to all the Union Cabinet Ministers on the need of giving prompt reply to Members of Parliament. In this letter it was specifically mentioned that the Ministers may consider setting up of a mechanism to periodically monitor progress in disposal of references received from the Members of Parliament. The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances does not centrally maintain a list of letters received by the various Ministries/Departments/Offices of the Government of India and reply sent in response.
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