After all-party teams abroad, govt considers ‘Parliamentary Friendship Groups'

The government is deliberating forming multi-party 'Parliamentary Friendship Groups', which will interact with their counterparts abroad, following the success of similar delegations sent for global outreach in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.
Discussions in this regard will be held with all parties in the forthcoming session of Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said Monday.
'Several countries have such multi-party parliamentary groups, and they keep asking us to form them. These groups will regularly interact with their counterparts abroad and articulate House best practices and maintain communication between our and Parliaments of other countries,' Birla said on the sidelines of a conference in Mumbai.
In a nearly two-hour meeting he held on June 10 with the delegations of MPs after they had returned from their tours regarding Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed pleasure at the 'success' of the endeavour and suggested that this could be institutionalised.
The seven delegations that were part of those tours included members from all parties, and articulated the government's stand on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, rising above ideological differences. The heads of these delegations included Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, the JD(U)'s Sanjay Kumar Jha, the BJP's Baijayant Panda and Ravi Shankar Prasad, the NCP (SP)'s Supriya Sule, the Shiv Sena's Shrikant Shinde and the DMK's Kanimozhi.
Birla is in Mumbai for a two-day National Conference of Estimates Committees of Parliament and State/UT Legislative Bodies. The event is being held after 23 years, and the discussions on Monday were held at the Maharashtra Assembly, and attended by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, Speaker Rahul Narwekar and Estimates Committee Chairman Sanjay Jaiswal, among others.
The Estimates Committees of Parliament and state Assemblies examine government Budget estimates and prepare a report. Their recommendations are adopted by the government to prepare the Budget. So Estimates Committees examine government proposals for spending in advance, which is different from Public Accounts Committees, which audit government spending.
Addressing the gathering, Birla said the conference was an attempt to bring greater transparency to government budgeting and spending.
'Parliamentary committees work as mini Parliament… The Estimates Committees essentially engage in monitoring of finances, in correct use of funds, and the evaluation of their use for public interest… This conference will share best practices of Estimate Committees of Parliament and various Assemblies,' he said.
The Speaker said the conference would also focus on use of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). 'We will also organise training for members. The more we use AI and data analytics, the more transparent things will become,' Birla said.
On the sidelines of the event, Birla said while almost 90% of the recommendations of the Parliament Estimates Committee are accepted by the government, in many states, such as Himachal Pradesh, only 15% of the recommendations are accepted. He said the two-day conference will look at how to bridge such gaps.
'Committees should not be criticising. They should be concerned with bringing transparency and accountability through discussion and production of evidence,' Birla said, while also calling for better coordination between the Estimates Committee and the PAC.
In his address, Fadnavis said the committees work through the year and keep a check on the government, ensuring it is accountable to the House.
'The Estimates Committee is more dynamic as it is a panel that examines spending in advance. Whether the budget estimate is correct… whether it is even needed. It ensures accountability … In Maharashtra, about 65-70% of recommendations are implemented,' he said.

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