"Not allowing the question hour to continue is a matter of concern. I am thinking of measures which can help in preventing the question hour to be disrupted." the Lok Sabha speaker said.
With the opposition parties frequently disrupting question hour over various issues, Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar is seriously contemplating measures to prevent this including changing its time.
After the first two days of the second phase of the Budget session were wasted over the Dantewada issue and Shashi Tharoor row, a worried Meira Kumar told PTI Bhasha, "not allowing the question hour to continue is a matter of concern. I am thinking of measures which can help in preventing the question hour to be disrupted."
She added, "question hour is being targeted but this is what makes the Parliament a public institution in true senses, where legislature's responsibility towards people is established."
The Lok Sabha speaker said she had still not decided over the measures but "whatever is the right measure, will be taken."
Sources in Lok Sabha Secretariat, however, said the speaker was possibly looking at the possibilities of changing the time of question hour and the officials were looking at the feasibility of holding it in the evening.
Asked if all political parties would be consulted on this issue, Kumar said, "We will talk to all the parties but this is only at the level of discussions."
In the first Budget Session of 14th Lok Sabha, 19 hours and 21 minutes were spent in discussing the general budget, five hours for question hour, whereas, 47 hours were wasted in disruptions.
In the 15th Lok Sabha's first budget, 50 hours were spent discussing the Budget, 20 hours on questions, whereas, 23 hours and 45 minutes were wasted.
In both the Houses of Parliament, the day's proceedings begin with the question hour and senior officials of various ministries and departments work as per its timing and later on take up other non-Parliamentary work.
The proposition of holding the question hour in the evening is likely to affect the work of ministries and bureaucrats.
A few parliamentarians said, to add weight to the issues raised by them, some political parties demand cancellation of the question hour to discuss the matters raised by them without waiting for the zero hour.
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