. Correspondence with Members of Parliament and VIPs

37. Correspondence with Members of Parliament and VIPs - (i) Communications received from Members of Parliament and VIPs should be attended to promptly. (ii) Where a communication is addressed to a Minister, it shall, as far as possible, be replied to by the Minister himself. In other cases, a reply should normally be signed by an officer of the rank of Secretary only. (iii) Where, however, a communication is addressed to the head of an attached or 31 subordinate office, Public Sector Undertakings, Financial Institutions (including nationalized banks) Division/Branch In charge in a Ministry/Department /Organisation, shall be replied to by the addressee himself. In routine matters, he may send an appropriate reply on his own. In policy matters, however, the officer should have prior consultation with higher authorities before sending a reply. It should, however, be ensured that the minimum level at which such replies are sent to Members of Parliament and VIPs is that of Under Secretary and that also in letter form only. (iv) Normally information sought by a Member/VIP should be supplied unless it is of such a nature that it would have been denied to him even if asked for on the floor of the Houses of Parliament. (v) In case, a reference from an ex-Member of Parliament is addressed to a Minister or Secretary, reply to such reference may be sent by a Joint Secretary level officer after obtaining approval of the Secretary of the Ministry/Department. In case the reference is addressed to a lower level officer, reply to such reference could be sent by the officer on his own in non-policy cases and after obtaining approval of the higher authorities in policy cases,. However, the minimum level at which reply could be sent should be that of an Under Secretary and that too in a polite letter form only. (vi) Each communication received from a Member of Parliament/VIP, shall be acknowledged within 15 days, followed by a reply within the next 15 days of acknowledgement sent. (vii) Appropriate record shall be maintained in respect of communications received from Members of Parliament and VIPs and monitored by all concerned. A similar procedure may also be followed for judicial/quasi-judicial matters.