145;No local issues during Zero Hour146;

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee asked the leaders of all political parties to stop their MPs from raising local block-level issues during Zero Hour in Parliament. In an attempt to streamline Zero Hour, Chatterjee said at a meeting today that members should raise only issues that were of national or international importance and not those concerning bore-wells and repair of village roads.

After the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the Speaker wanted the number of questions to be reduced and the quality of questions to be raised.

8216;8216;What I wanted to discuss was how to regulate Zero Hour so that we can have matters of national and international importance raised in the House. There is consensus among all the parties. The Speaker8217;s office will select the issues to be raised by the members on a particular day and their names would be announced before 12 noon,8217;8217; Chatterjee said. He added that members could raise issues of relevance under Rule 377 or when the House takes up for discussion the subjects concerned. When pointed out that most members felt that the Government failed to follow up on issues raised by them under Rule 377, the Speaker said: 8216;8216;I have told the ministers that they should respond to queries raised by the members.8217;8217;