What are Consultative Committees?
Q. Which of the following is/are true regarding Consultative Committees?
1) Consultative committees are not attached to ministries/departments.
2)These committees are constituted by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.- Published on 03 Mar 17a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2
ANSWER: Only 2
- Consultative committees are attached to various ministries/departments of the Central Government.
- They consist of members of both the Houses of Parliament.
- The Minister/Minister of State in charge of the Ministry concerned acts as the chairman of the consultative committee of that ministry.
- These committees provide a forum for informal discussions between the ministers and the members of Parliament on policies and programmes of the government and the manner of their implementation.
- These committees are constituted by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
- The guidelines regarding the composition, functions and procedures of these committees are formulated by this Ministry.
- The Ministry also makes arrangements for holding their meetings both during the session and the intersession period of Parliament.
- The membership of these committees is voluntary and is left to the choice of the members and the leaders of their parties.
- The maximum membership of a committee is 30 and the minimum is 10.
- These committees are normally constituted after the new Lok Sabha is constituted, after General Elections for the Lok Sabha.
- Thus, these committees shall stand dissolved upon dissolution of every Lok Sabha and shall be reconstituted upon constitution of each Lok Sabha.
- Also, separate Informal Consultative Committees of the members of Parliament are also constituted for all the Railway Zones.
- Members of Parliament belonging to the area falling under a particular Railway Zone are nominated on the Informal Consultative Committee of that Railway Zone.
- Unlike the Consultative Committees attached to various ministries/departments, the meetings of the Informal Consultative Committees are to be arranged during the session periods only.
