He made this remark at the inauguration of the National Conference of Chairpersons of Committees of Parliament and State Legislatures on the Welfare of SCs and STs.

Role of Parliamentary Committee

• Non-Partisan Functioning & Consensus Building: It fosters cross-party consensus as  it includes members from multiple parties including  opposition parties.
• Domain Expertise:  e.g. The Committee on Health studied Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016.
• Ensures government accountability: e.g. The Public Accounts Committee in 2024 flagged excess spending by four ministries.
• Focus on developmental issues: e.g. The Committee on Rural Development flagged declining successive budgetary allocations to Panchayati Raj Institutions.
• Strengthen laws passed by parliament.E.g. Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 was revised due to insights given by joint parliamentary committee               

Challenges in functioning of Parliamentary Committee

• Referral of Bills to Committees is not Mandatory: Declining trend in the percentage of bills being referred to a Committee has been observed. E.g. 15th Lok Sabha(71%), 16th (28%), 17th (16%).
• Low participation: Attendance of MPs in Committee meetings is ~50%, which is lower than the 84% attendance during the Parliament sittings. 
• Lack of Expert and Research Support: Parliamentary Committees are frequently thinly staffed and lack full-time technical expert and research support. 

Steps to be Taken

• Referring Bills to Committees-can be made mandatory like in United Kingdom 
• Increase Transparency: Specify reasons for rejecting certain recommendations.
• Enhance research support: Allow Committees to retain expert advisors for informed scrutiny.