Why do you think the committees are considered to be useful for parliamentary work? Discuss, in this context, the role of the Estimates Committee.

With limited floor time and increasingly technical business, Parliament legislates and oversees substantially through its committees — often called mini-Parliaments — which allow detailed, expert and relatively non-partisan scrutiny.

Why Committees Are Useful

• Clause-by-clause examination of bills and demands for grants that the full House cannot attempt.
• Access to expertise through evidence from officials, domain specialists and stakeholders.
• Deliberation away from cameras curbs grandstanding and fosters cross-party consensus.
• Continuous accountability of the executive between sessions, through financial committees and 24 department-related standing committees.

Role of the Estimates Committee

• Largest parliamentary committee: 30 members, all from the Lok Sabha, elected annually by proportional representation through the single transferable vote; ministers cannot be members; the Speaker appoints the chairperson.
• Constituted in 1950 on the recommendation of John Mathai.
• Reports what economies, organizational improvements and administrative reforms consistent with the policy underlying the estimates may be effected; suggests alternative policies for efficiency; examines whether money is well laid out; recommends the form in which estimates are presented — hence a 'continuous economy committee'.
• Limitations: it examines estimates only after the budget is voted, cannot question the policy approved by Parliament, works without CAG assistance (unlike the PAC), and its recommendations are advisory.

Even so, by auditing economy and efficiency round the year, the Estimates Committee helps convert the budget from an annual ritual into a continuing exercise in financial accountability.