The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is the coordinating agency within the Government for its interaction with the Parliament. One of the specific functions assigned to the Ministry under the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 is the implementation of assurances given by Ministers in Parliament.
The functions performed by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in this regard essentially comprise the following three broad lines of action:-
- culling out of assurances from the debates;
- monitoring the state of fulfilment thereof; and
- laying of implementation reports before the Houses.
During the course of answers to Questions or during debates, various assurances - in the form of promises, undertakings or other such forms of expressions - are given by Ministers on the floor of the House. (i) Such assurances are given due to non availability of information, at that point of time, to meet the queries or points raised by the Members. (ii) An assurance given to the Lok/Rajya Sabha is required to be fulfilled within a period of three months from the date of assurance. (iii) With the approval of the Minister, Ministry may seek extension of time from the Committee on Government Assurances, Lok/Rajya Sabha for fulfilling the assurance. (iv) If the Ministry feels that a particular statement/reply does not constitute an assurance or it is not feasible to fulfil the same for any valid reasons, with the approval of the concerned Minister, they may write for its deletion/dropping to the Committee on Govt. Assurances.
Detail Procedures relating to fulfilling of the assurances may be seen in "Manual".
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