Who is changing MLAs’ questions in MP:5 MLAs write to assembly secretariat, alleging questions are being altered in collusion

Ahead of the winter session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly starting on 1 December, many Congress MLAs have raised a serious issue. They say the Assembly Secretariat is changing the questions they submit. According to them, some Secretariat staff and officials of related departments are working together to change these questions. Bhaskar has copies of the complaint letters written by the MLAs. The newspaper also spoke to some of these MLAs to understand how their questions were changed. Experts were also asked whether questions in the Assembly can be changed. This report explains the full matter. Now know about these allegations in detail State-level information limited to the district
This allegation is made by Pratap Grewal, MLA from the Sardarpur assembly constituency in Dhar district. Grewal has written in his complaint that he had asked four questions during the monsoon session. In all these questions, he had sought state-level information, but the Secretariat limited them to Dhar district without his permission. He had complained about this on August 4 via letter number 372/2025, but even after three months, no action has been taken. 1. Question Number- 784 (July 29, 2025): According to Grewal, in this question, he had sought a two-year detailed account of the amount given to Ladli Behna beneficiaries. He also asked if new Ladli Behna beneficiaries would be registered. Would the age of beneficiaries be changed from 21 to 18 years? All this information was sought at the state level, but it was limited to Dhar district. 2. Question No.- 1886 (August 1, 2025): In this question, Grewal sought information from the Minister of Social Justice and Welfare of Persons with Disabilities regarding the pension received by persons with disabilities. Information was also sought regarding the state government’s share in the pension given to beneficiaries. 3. Question No.- 1888 (August 1, 2025): Grewal had asked the Environment Minister how many factories are registered in the state where waste tires are burnt. He had asked for their complete details. He also asked how many complaints were received against the factories in the last 5 years and what action was taken? 4. Question Number- 1889 : This question was asked to the Minister of Tribal Affairs. It sought information on scholarships for students from class 1 to 12 from 2021 to 2025. This information was also limited to Dhar district. 2. Allegation of suppressing private university information
Similarly, during the monsoon session, MLA from Rajpur seat of Barwani district and former minister Bala Bachchan sought detailed information related to the fee fixation process in private universities in question number 2215 related to the Higher Education Department. He had sought this information including details of meetings from 2020 to 2025. Bala Bachchan alleged that the Secretariat amended the question, changing its original spirit. Bala Bachchan had also raised this matter before the Question Accounts Committee. 3. Minister admitted, wrong answer given to the question
This matter is from the Monsoon Session of 2024. Jayvardhan Singh, MLA from Raghogarh and former minister, had asked a question regarding the lack of facilities in graduate colleges through Question No. 507 on July 1, 2024, and sought a reply from the government. Jayvardhan alleged that incorrect information was provided to him in response to this question. He had registered an objection through Question No. 673 in the next session, i.e., the Winter Session held in December 2024. On this, Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar had admitted in the House that incorrect information was provided. However, information regarding what action was taken against the erring officials has not yet been provided to Jayvardhan Singh. 4. Changed district level question to state level
Pratap Grewal complains that he had asked a state-level question which was limited to the district, but MLA Pankaj Upadhyay from Jaura seat of Morena district says that he had asked a question related to a district on July 29, 2025. That question was changed to a state-level one. Also, the language and meaning of the question were changed by the employees sitting in the secretariat without his permission. This rendered the question irrelevant and violated the member’s privilege. On July 29, Pankaj Upadhyay had asked the Women and Child Development Minister, through question number 711, about increasing the amount of Ladli Behna schemes to 3 thousand rupees. In this, he had only asked for information about Morena district, but he says that information about the entire state was provided in it. 5. Corruption points removed from the question itself
This allegation has been made by Mahesh Parmar, MLA from Tarana seat of Ujjain district. During the monsoon session held in July this year, Parmar had asked a question related to corruption, irregularities, and Lokayukta, EOW cases in the agriculture department of Ujjain district. Parmar alleges that points 2, 3 and 4 of question number 345 were removed from the questionnaire itself. Information related to corruption was sought in these points. In this matter, Parmar had also lodged a complaint by writing a letter on July 28. Former MLAs also said – this has happened to us too
Congress leader Paras Sakhlecha has been a member of the 13th Assembly (2008-2013). He says that when I was an MLA, I also had this complaint many times. The location of questions is changed, the scope is reduced, and the duration is shortened without the consent of the MLAs. I spoke to several current MLAs and they said – this complaint still exists today. Now know what is the process of asking questions in the Assembly
Former Speaker of the Assembly, Sitasaran Sharma, states that the number of questions an MLA can ask in a session depends on the duration of the session. For example, since this winter session is for 4 days, an MLA can ask 16 questions throughout the session. A notification is issued approximately one month before the session begins. As soon as the notification is issued, it is decided what the last date for asking questions for which department is. For example, for the winter session starting from December 1, the last date for receiving questions for the departments of Panchayat, Labor, Agriculture, Food, Sports and Youth Welfare, Cooperation, Higher Education, Ayush, and Technical Education was fixed as November 21. For the remaining departments, the last dates were fixed as November 24, 26, and 28. Can questions be changed in the Assembly?
To know the answer to this question, Bhaskar spoke to former Principal Secretary of the Assembly, AP Singh, and former Speaker of the Assembly, Sitasaran Sharma. AP Singh said that MLAs sometimes ask questions that exceed the word limit. In such cases, with the permission of the Speaker, it is shortened. If the answer to a question is becoming too long, it is limited to information about only one district instead of the entire state. The question is cut short, but its original spirit is not hurt. Meanwhile, former Speaker of the Assembly, Sitasaran Sharma, also said that the word limit of a question cannot exceed a prescribed limit.