Statistics panel dissolved amid ‘dissent’ over Census
Context:
Recently, the Union Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation dissolved the 14-member Standing Committee on Statistics (SCoS).
- It was headed by economist and former Chief Statistician of the country Pronab Sen, allegedly after its members questioned the delay in conducting the Census.
Relevance:
GS-02 (Polity)
Reasons for dissolving the committee?
- Overlap in responsibilities: As per an e-mail sent to the Director-General of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), the dissolving was due to the overlapping of its role with the recently formed Steering Committee for National Sample Surveys.
- Delay in conducting census: The government having questioned by the committee on the delay of the conduct of 2021 Census of India has met with this response from the government.
- Government’s Strategic Shift: The formation of a new Steering Committee under the National Statistical Commission (NSC) implies that the government is possibly trying to centralize the census methodologies under a new framework to avoid conflicting opinions and streamline operations.
What are Parliamentary committees?
- It is a group of MPs who are either appointed or elected by the House or nominated by the Speaker/Chairman to deal with various matters that cannot be handled by the legislature.
- The Estimates Committee is the largest Community of the Parliament. It has 30 members and all are from the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha gets no representation in this committee.
- They draw their authority from Article 105 and Article 118.
- India’s parliament has many types of committees. There are two types of parliamentary committees- Standing committees and Ad-hoc committees.
Standing Committees:
- They are permanent in nature, however, it is constituted once in every year or periodically.
- They are classified under 6 categories: Financial Committees, Committees to Enquire, Departmental Standing Committees, Committees to Scrutinise and Control, House-Keeping Committees or Service Committees, Committees Relating to the Day-to-Day Business of the House
Ad-Hoc Committees:
- They are temporary committees that dissolves on completion of the task assigned to them.
- They are sub-categorized as Inquiry Committees and Advisory Committees.
