Another member referred to para. 7.15 at p. 46 of the Annual Report of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for 1984-85 and quoted two instances of the Special Mentions made by him to which replies were received after more than a month and said that whatever was mentioned in the Annual Report was not being implemented. Again on 5 September 1991, a member complained that no replies to Special Mentions were coming to members for years together. They refer to some issues. We have no procedure of letting the Minister react immediately, but at least in one week or two weeks the answer should come to them.
Members raise certain issues which are very serious.
I would request the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs to make it a point to tell the concerned Ministers and write to the concerned Ministers about it. On 18 March 1993, a member raised, as a question of privilege, a matter that he received a reply on 10 March 1993, to a Special Mention made by him in the House on 15 May 1990, i.e., after three years. In this context, the Rules Committee considered in 1984 a suggestion of some members for constituting a Committee of the House to monitor replies to the Special Mentions made by members in the House. Although the Committee did not agree to the suggestion, it proposed that as in the case of Government Assurances, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs should lay, during each session, a statement on the Table of the House, indicating the action taken by Government on the Special Mentions made by members in the House. The proposal, however, did not find favour with the Government.