Establishment of Forums
On 12 May 2005, the then Speaker, Lok Sabha, Shri Somnath Chatterjee informed the House of his decision to constitute a Parliamentary Forum on Water Conservation and Management so that the Members of Parliament can discuss the critical issue of water in a structured manner and also to raise the issue more effectively on the floor of the House.
Accordingly, the Forum was constituted on 12 August 2005. Subsequently, four more Parliamentary Fora were constituted.
At present, there are five Parliamentary Fora:
- Forum on Water Conservation and Management
- Forum on Youth
- Forum on Children
- Forum on Population and Public Health
- Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change
Objective of Parliamentary Forums
The objectives behind the constitution of the five Parliamentary Fora are:
- Provide a platform to the members to have interaction with Ministers concerned, experts and key officials from the nodal Ministries with a view to have a focused and meaningful discussion on critical issues with a result-oriented approach for speeding up the implementation process.
- Sensitize the members about the key areas of concern and also about the ground level situation and equip them with the latest information, knowledge, technical know-how and valuable inputs from experts both from the country and abroad for enabling them to raise these issues effectively on the Floor of the House and in the meetings of the Depart men tally Related Standing Committees (DRSCs).
- Prepare a database through collection of data on critical issues from Ministries concerned, reliable NGOs, Newspapers, United Nations, Internet, etc. and circulation thereof to the Members so that they can meaningfully participate in the discussions of the Fora and seek clarifications from experts or officials from the Ministry present in the meetings.
Each Forum consists of not more than 31 members (excluding the President and ex officio Vice-Presidents) out of whom not more than 21 are from Lok Sabha and not more than 10 are from Rajya Sabha.
Members other than the President and Vice-President of these Fora are nominated by the Speaker, Lok Sabha, and the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, as the case may be, from amongst the Leaders of various Political Parties/Groups or their nominees, who have special knowledge/ keen interest in the subject.
It has been mandated that the Parliamentary Fora will not interfere with or encroach upon the jurisdiction of the Departmentally Related Standing Committees or the Ministry/Department concerned.
Term of Office
The term of the office of members of the Forum shall be co-terminus with their membership in the respective Houses.
A member may also resign from the Forum by writing under his/her hand, addressed to the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, or the Speaker, Lok Sabha, as the case may be.