Tag: parliamentary system and procedures

The Government of India had appointed the Second Backward Classes Commission in 1979. It was headed by B.P. Mandal. Hence it was popularly called the Mandal Commission. It was asked to determine the criteria to identify the socially and educationally backward classes in India and recommend steps to be taken for their advancement. The Commission gave its Report in 1980 and made many recommendations. One of these was that 27 per cent of government jobs be reserved for the socially and educationally backward classes. 

Executive means all the functionaries, political power holders and civil servants who work for the execution of law and order in the country

There are two types of executives political and permanent

• Political executive
  

It includes all the politically elected representatives of the country. Political Executive work for a fixed tenure of about 5 years.

• Permanent executive
  

It consists of civil servants from the lowest to highest levels. It carries out day to day administration by working in the government departments. The civil servants are politically neutral.

The Government of India had appointed the Second Backward Classes Commission in 1979. It was headed by B.P. Mandal. Hence it was popularly called the Mandal Commission. It was asked to determine the criteria to identify the socially and educationally backward classes in India and recommend steps to be taken for their advancement. The Commission gave its Report in 1980 and made many recommendations. One of these was that 27 per cent of government jobs be reserved for the socially and educationally backward classes. The Report and recommendations were discussed in the Parliament. 

A member of the House may ask questions from the Government on matters of public interest. The first hour on every working day of the House is reserved for questions unless otherwise decided by the Speaker. This hour is known as Question Hour. There are three types of questions:
i) Starred questions ii) Unstarred questions iii) Short notice questions.

Sometimes the members get the normal work of the State Legislature suspended temporarily to discuss matters of urgent public importance this extraordinary  procedure called as Adjournment motion. Subject to the provisions of these rules , a motion for an adjournment of the business of the House for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance maybe made with the consent of the Speaker.

A Starred Question is one to which a member desires an oral answer in the House and which is distinguished by an asterisk mark. When a question is answered orally, supplementary questions can be asked thereon. Only 20 questions can be listed for oral answer on a day.

Violation of constitution is the only ground on which a President can be impeached. The impeachment charges can be initiated in either of the houses of the Parliament with at least one-fourth members of that house signing the charges. To pass the motion each house has to pass the resolution with not less two-thirds of majority.

In the parliamentary parlance, it is referred as the time gap between the end of Question Hour and the beginning of the regular business. Zero Hour doesn’t find a mention in the Rules of Procedure and hence it’s considered an informal procedure for the members of Parliament to raise matters of serious importance. The other rationale behind naming it so can be traced to the fact that it starts at 12 noon.

• Mandal Commission was appointed 1979 by Janata Party Govt.
• Mandal Commission was appointed to review the representation of backward classes in jobs.
• Mandal Commission report generated controversy because it affected thousands of job opportunities.