Parliament diary: Cow sanctuary request leaves Lok Sabha secretariat confused
The Lok Sabha secretariat is rather perplexed on how to deal with a particular special mention made by BJP MP Prahlad Sing Patel. Though the Lok Sabha is not functioning properly due to continued disruptions, members of Parliament are allowed to table their submission under Rule 377 — known as “special mention”. Mr Patel submitted a demand for creating a sanctuary for cows of the country. It is a practice that all submissions made by the MPs are sent to the respective ministry for a response on the issue. In this case, however, the Lok Sabha is confused on which ministry to send the “cow protection” request to. Generally, all requests for sanctuaries to be made to protect wildlife comes under Environment and Forest ministry. But so far no ministry of the Central government has ever dealt with the demand for a cow sanctuary. Finally, it was suggested by an expert that the request be sent to the ministry of agriculture and farmer welfare. The ministry of agriculture and farmer welfare has a department for animal welfare. And the hope is that they would be able to decide on the fate of the cow sanctuary.
MPs told to hand over archival material
The Lok Sabha secretariat has requested the members of Parliament to deposit any archival material they have in their possession for the Parliament museum. This constitutes private correspondences, notes, articles, manuscripts, diaries, relics, art pieces, mementos, personal belongings of national leaders. Even photographs with archival value linked to the life of parliamentarians and freedom fighters have been called for. Some Lok Sabha members told the secretariat that they have some material but they would like the originals to be returned. The request was then amended to say that if anyone wanted the originals to be returned, the documents would be photocopied. Some members also hinted that they had some potentially damaging documents in their possession. The secretariat is yet to take a call on whether to keep these explosive documents in its archives.
Proposal to drop etiquette bulletin
The Lok Sabha publishes a bulletin for the benefit of the members of Parliament every day. As part of this daily bulletin, there is a chapter on parliamentary customs, conventions and etiquette. The Lok Sabha’s Speaker’s office received a proposal that this practice of printing the bulletin be stopped. The irony cannot be missed as this comes at a time when the functioning of the Lok Sabha has spiralled into complete chaos after the demonetisation decision.
