E- Petitions, making Parliament accessible to citizens
The Issue
Want the Parliament to discuss issues that affect you or your surroundings? Now you can! Consider this petition!
Parliament's function is to represent people's interests to the government.
However, as witnessed recently, Dr. Shashi Tharoor’s Private Member Bill on amending Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was defeated at the introduction stage itself. Thus an issue that concerns a vast number of citizens could not be debated in Parliament.
There is a need for Parliament to be made more accessible to the people. One of the ways to achieve this is through the people petitioning the Parliament.
Currently, the system of petitions (presented to the House through a Member) and representations (submitted to the Committee on Petitions for consideration) are the only ways people can ask Parliament to consider an issue. Beyond this, there are little avenues for citizens to engage with Parliament and highlight issues that they would want to be discussed.
An online petitioning system would make it easier for citizens to represent their issues to Parliament.
It would be mandatory for the Parliament to have a discussion on petitions that receive more than 1 lakh signatures. Any organisation or individual would be able to highlight their concerns to the Parliament and the Government while generating discussion and awareness about important issues. Discussions, we believe, lead to solutions.
The British Parliament follows this system and has created a robust mechanism for citizens to interact with the Parliament and Government.
The Advantages of the Online Petition system are:
- Provides a platform to the citizens to raise their concerns regarding important matters
- Improves the quality of debate in Parliament by bringing in more issues for debate
- Creates a vibrant eco-system of advocacy in the country
How will the Petition System work?
- Online Portal on Lok Sabha Website will be created for accepting petitions and allowing Indian Citizens to vote for petitions that matter to them
- The Parliamentary Committee on Petitions will scrutinize these petitions and take a decision on their validity based on a pre-defined standard for petitions
- Ten Thousand Signatures on a valid petition would make it eligible for a response from the government
- One Lakh Signatures on a valid petition would make it eligible for a debate in Parliament
The Issue
Want the Parliament to discuss issues that affect you or your surroundings? Now you can! Consider this petition!
Parliament's function is to represent people's interests to the government.
However, as witnessed recently, Dr. Shashi Tharoor’s Private Member Bill on amending Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was defeated at the introduction stage itself. Thus an issue that concerns a vast number of citizens could not be debated in Parliament.
There is a need for Parliament to be made more accessible to the people. One of the ways to achieve this is through the people petitioning the Parliament.
Currently, the system of petitions (presented to the House through a Member) and representations (submitted to the Committee on Petitions for consideration) are the only ways people can ask Parliament to consider an issue. Beyond this, there are little avenues for citizens to engage with Parliament and highlight issues that they would want to be discussed.
An online petitioning system would make it easier for citizens to represent their issues to Parliament.
It would be mandatory for the Parliament to have a discussion on petitions that receive more than 1 lakh signatures. Any organisation or individual would be able to highlight their concerns to the Parliament and the Government while generating discussion and awareness about important issues. Discussions, we believe, lead to solutions.
The British Parliament follows this system and has created a robust mechanism for citizens to interact with the Parliament and Government.
The Advantages of the Online Petition system are:
- Provides a platform to the citizens to raise their concerns regarding important matters
- Improves the quality of debate in Parliament by bringing in more issues for debate
- Creates a vibrant eco-system of advocacy in the country
How will the Petition System work?
- Online Portal on Lok Sabha Website will be created for accepting petitions and allowing Indian Citizens to vote for petitions that matter to them
- The Parliamentary Committee on Petitions will scrutinize these petitions and take a decision on their validity based on a pre-defined standard for petitions
- Ten Thousand Signatures on a valid petition would make it eligible for a response from the government
- One Lakh Signatures on a valid petition would make it eligible for a debate in Parliament
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on 24 May 2016