NEW DELHI: Ahead of the winter session of Parliament, the Lok Sabha has modified access protocols for the Digital Sansad portal for the personal assistants and secretaries of parliamentarians. This comes in the wake of the cash-for-query allegations against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who has been accused of sharing her login details with business tycoon Darshan Hiranandani, allowing him to post questions directly to the portal.
On November 9, the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee recommended Moitra’s expulsion from LS, citing a serious breach of parliamentary rules. A controversy erupted in October when BJP MP Nishikant Dubey accused Moitra of accepting bribes from Hiranandani in exchange for raising parliamentary questions.
According to the new protocol, PAs can only save notices as drafts, with lawmakers required to file them from their accounts. “A PA/PS can only submit draft notices, final notices can only be submitted by the honorable member,” reads the new notification on the tab called ‘E-Notice’ on Digital Sansad.
Previously, PAs of MPs could access the tab E-Notice to file documents related to the legislative branch. This included parliament questions, requests for short-duration and zero-hour discussions, draft bills, and amendments.
Speaking to this newspaper, a personal secretary of a Lok Sabha MP said that he came to know about the change while trying to submit questions on the portal on November 13. There was no official bulletin on this, he said. “When we checked with the National Informatics Centre, they told us that a bulletin regarding the restriction would be issued on November 15,” he said, adding that they are yet to receive any communication.
A bulletin released on November 10 by Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh did not have any reference either, another staff pointed out. The Digital Sansad platform, inaugurated on September 1 to bring Parliament closer to the people, allows all citizens to access Parliamentary Papers and Proceedings on their mobile devices. Initially, it allowed members to authorise assistants or secretaries to access the account by submitting their authorised personnel’s email IDs and phone numbers to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
“Now with the Moitra row, MPs can no longer authorise secretaries to access account,” said another staff member. “The MPs usually delegate the work to the staff as it’s impossible for them to manage everything alone,” said a member.
The potential challenge arising from this decision is that lawmakers may not possess equal qualifications or skill sets and are often reliant on their assistants for digital functions. “Except for a few MPs, most are heavily dependent on their staff for drafting questions and other tasks,” he added. At least three people pointed out that the new protocol is a ‘farce’ as most PAs possess the email ID and password of the parliamentarians. “This is just an eyewash,” said a source.
