Following the “cash-for-query” row involving Trinamool Congress (MP) Mahua Moitra, the Lok Sabha secretariat has underscored the confidentiality of government’s replies to MPs during the Question Hour in the House and asked them to access their portal only for their exclusive use.
Moitra has been accused by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey of letting a Dubai-based businessman to access her parliamentary portal in lieu of bribes. Following this, the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee had summoned both the politicians, and later recommended her expulsion.
Although Mahua has admitted to sharing her log-in credentials with businessman Darshan Hiranandani, CEO of Hiranandani Group, she has denied the taking any bribes for that.
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“It may be noted that since the replies are log-in and password protected on the Members’ Portal, they are exclusively for the use of Members only,” the Lok Sabha secretariat said in its bulletin dated November 10, a day after the the House’s Ethics Committee recommended Moitra’s expulsion.
Members are, therefore, requested to maintain confidentiality of the replies and not to share the contents with others until the Question Hour is over, it added.
It informed MPs that the contents of reply made in response to a question is “strictly confidential” until the question for oral answer has been asked and answered in the House.
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In case a question could not come up for oral answer, the reply to the question should not be released till the conclusion of Question Hour, the Lok Sabha secretariat added.
“Questions included in the lists of written answers are also to be treated as confidential until the same have been laid on the Table of the House after the Question Hour is over,” it said.
Under a new initiative, the secretariat said replies to ‘Starred Questions’, a term for queries where ministers concerned answer to related supplementaries in the House, are being uploaded on members’ portal by 9 am on the day of reply.
With Parliament’s Winter Session scheduled to begin from December 4, members have begun putting in their questions.
Meanwhile, sharing the secretariat’s bulletin on X, Dubey took a swipe at Moitra saying the “corrupt MP was probably not informed of these rules by a PA like Hiranandani”.