New Delhi: The personal assistants of new Lok Sabha MPs are being trained on accessing and using the members’ portal and email IDs, a key duty they undertake to help the lawmakers prepare for Parliament. The training, which started on Monday, is significant after Trinamool Congress lawmaker Mahua Moitra’s cash for query controversy erupted in the last Lok Sabha in which the access to the MPs’ portal was compromised.
The first training session of the assistants in the 18th Lok Sabha also comes after the National Informatics Centre, which managed Parliament’s digital network, changed the protocols to access the digital portal in November following the cash for query enquiry by the parliamentary ethics committee.
“Hon’ble Members of Lok Sabha are informed that a training programme for PA/PS to Members will be held virtually from 15.07.2024 to 19.07.2024 from 11:00AM to 12:00 PM. to help them to familiarize with the steps to access NIC e-mail Id and Member’s Portal from Digital Sansad website and various facilities provided to MPs in the Member’s portal and its usages,” the Lok Sabha secretariat said in a circular.
The training is conducted virtually. “We are giving a lot of importance to such training sessions as we want the assistants and secretaries to know how to operate the system and avoid misuse,” a Lok Sabha official said, declining to be named. The training is typically given in every Lok Sabha. The difference this time is that the access protocols have become more stringent.
The first session of Parliament from June 24 to July 3 had limited requirements for the MPs to access the portal, as the short session didn’t have any Question Hour or Zero Hour. But in the upcoming session from July 22 to August 12, the MPs might depend on secretarial assistance to upload questions or give notices.
“My MP has categorically told me to want attend the training as new protocols have been put in place,” a personal assistant of an opposition MP said, seeking anonymity. “Also, I think it would help me to adapt to the new system.” “This is only useful for the assistants and secretaries of first-time MPs,” another assistant of an opposition MP said, wishing to remain unnamed. “I have been doing this work for 25 years now. I don’t need any further training.”
Before the cash for query controversy, the personal assistants, through their own accounts on the parliament portal called Digital Sansad, could access a tab called “E-Notice” to file documents related to the legislative branch such as Parliament questions, requests for short duration discussions, requests for Zero Hour discussion, Rule 377 (Lok Sabha) and Special Mention (Rajya Sabha) requests, draft bills and amendments, among other things. Under the new protocol, the assistants can only save notices as drafts and the MP has to submit or file the notice from their account.
The personal assistants and MP’s staff still have their own accounts with the Digital Sansad portal, the OTP (one time password) to which is delivered on the assistants’ mobile numbers, HT reported on November 23. Earlier, when they posted notices, a second OTP that was generated to file the notices were was sent to their mobile numbers. Now, the option to post notices has been blocked on their accounts.
Under the new protocol, when the MPs log into their Digital Sansad account, the OTP is sent to their mobile number. When they have to file notices, another OTP is generated, which is again sent to the MP’s mobile number.
To sign in to the Sansad email address, the MPs have to use Kavach, an authenticator app similar to Google Authenticator. For Kavach, an MP can give their mobile number along with their personal assistants. Thus, the staff then has access to the Sansad email, and through that, to the MP’s Digital Sansad account.
Earlier, when the MP received documents from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats, including committee reports and publications, on their Sansad email address, which is separate from the Digital Sansad portal, they were synced with the “Messages” tab on their assistants’ Sansad Portal account. Now, the “Messages” tab has disappeared from the PAs’ account on the Sansad Portal. This “Messages” tab did not require another OTP earlier.
(Courtesy: The Hindustan Times)
