Ahead of the winter session of the Parliament, the Lok Sabha has reportedly made certain changes to its Digital Sansad portal’s login and passwords for the Members of Parliament. This comes after a huge controversy erupted over cash-for-query scam accused Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra allegedly sharing her parliamentary ID and password with Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
Notably, the restriction does not apply to MPs themselves, but rather to their secretaries and personal assistants. These applications, which were widely used by MPs for tasks such as question submission for parliamentary debates, email access, and Travel Allowance (TA) bill submission, will now not be accessible to the supporting staff and the MPs will have to manage their own digital parliamentary functions.
It is pertinent to note that the parliamentary authorities have not issued a statement or confirmation in this regard yet. Members of the Lok Sabha are now required to conduct their own digital parliamentary operations. However, given the time and skills limitations of many members, this could prove to be challenging.
“At best, the members can sit beside their assistants or secretaries, sharing the passwords and OTPs to get their work done. Most MPs are still using this ‘unofficial’ method to participate,” Times of India (TOI) quoted a source.
Since the launch of Digital Sansad on September 1, members have been able to authorise assistants or secretaries to access their accounts by giving the email addresses and phone numbers of their authorised staff to the Lok Sabha secretariat.
According to the Lok Sabha user manual, Members of Parliament are allowed to add details of their personal assistants or personal staff who they want to access their login to manage their parliamentary operations. The MPs are required to fill details of PA/PS including their names, email IDs and mobile number. The MPs are required to check and save the declaration “I hereby declare that the information is true as per my knowledge. I understand that the PA/PS will not get any rights for remuneration by the Parliament of India,” to make their parliamentary login accessible to their personal assistants.
The development follows cash-for-query scam accused TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s admission that she handed her Parliament login ID and password to businessman and her friend, Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani, in order for someone in the latter’s office to put in the questions to be answered in the Lok Sabha. Hiranandani responded with an affidavit accusing her of collecting payments in cash and as gifts of luxury items to ask questions.
Hiranandani said in his affidavit that Moitra gave him her Parliament username and password so he could post questions on her behalf. As reported earlier, the IT ministry had stated that it had sent a report to the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee confirming that the TMC leader’s parliamentary ID was accessed 49 times from Dubai.