A Twitter handle, Madhyam on Sunday mentioned that two questions had gone missing from the Rajya Sabha website. Both the questions were asked on July 24, 2018, and pertained to demonetised currency deposited in banks.
A joint question, Q.668, was asked by Samajwadi Party MPs Neeraj Shekhar and Ravi Prakash Verma. It pertained to the RTI query that had revealed that within five days of the demonetisation announcement, demonetised notes worth ₹750 crores had been deposited in Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief, Amit Shah, is the director of Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB).
The MPs had asked if any government inquiry was conducted into the large amounts deposited in ADCB.
The second question that went missing, Q. 714, was asked by a BJP MP Amar Shankar Sable. The MP had asked for the details of the amount deposited in cooperative societies, and cooperative banks of each state. He also inquired if such banks and societies in states and union territories were authorised to deposit demonetised currency.
Madhyam, ‘a platform to enable stakeholder engagement with policy-making’, explained in a series of tweets why it was extremely unusual for the questions to go missing from the Rajya Sabha website.
It said in a tweet, “The fact that these Questions were published in Question List fr[for] 24 July means that they made it thru[through] the ballot & were found admissible for answering. After this, there could be no reason for Govt to not answer these questions or not publish the answers.”
SP MP Neeraj Shekhar, who spoke to National Herald said that he had reported the matter to the Rajya Sabha Secretary and had also asked for the reply to Q.668 to be uploaded on the website.
Both questions re-appeared on the website on Monday, 30th July, after Madhyam and National Herald brought attention to the matter.
#RSQuestionsMissing
What could be the reason when 2 Parliamentary Questions asked in #RajyaSabha on ‘Deposit of #DemonetisedNotes in Cooperative Banks’ go missing from Rajya Sabha website?
Unstarred Q.668 and Q.714, both asked on 24/07/2018 cannot be found on Rajya Sabha website.— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
Q.668 asked details of PSBs, District Coop Banks where highest amt of #DemonetisedNotes were deposited along with amt deposited
It also specifically asked about Ahmedabad District Coop Bank & money deposited there & any Govt inquiry into alleged huge deposits. pic.twitter.com/kl7GC16dU4— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
Q.714 asked state-wise details of amt deposited in Coop societies, District Coop Banks, Urban Banks, State Coop Banks after demonetization till 31st March 2017. It also asked whether these societies and banks were allowed to change demonetized currency. pic.twitter.com/7jPjKo5Smf— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
Now there are several ways of searching for Questions on Rajya Sabha website. Each of those ways was tried, to locate the question and its answer.
It was not found anywhere except one place where it showed a blank page. pic.twitter.com/LUqjHPtsR4— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
Pictures of screenshot of Rajya Sabha website with record of Q.668 missing pic.twitter.com/KhrfkDkMb6— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
Pictures of screenshot of Rajya Sabha website with record of Q.668 missing contd pic.twitter.com/gPoWkMeUp0— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
Pictures of screenshot of Rajya Sabha website with record of Q.714 missing pic.twitter.com/AjxQnpG1Ix— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
Pictures of screenshot of Rajya Sabha website with record of Q.714 missing contd pic.twitter.com/RoqdpzNOEV— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
The fact that these Questions were published in Question List fr 24 July means that they made it thru the ballot & were found admissible for answering
After this, there could be no reason for Govt to not to answer these questions or not to publish the answer.— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
Sometimes when Govt doesn’t have the response, the answer usually provided is ‘The Govt doesn’t collect this data’ or ‘Govt is collecting this information which will soon be tabled in Parliament’. But this circumstance of a Question going missing is quite new.— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing
It is hoped that the MPs who asked these questions – Neeraj Shekhar and Ravi Prakash Verma (SP) for Q.668 and Amar Shankar Sable (BJP) for Q.714 will demand answer from Finance Ministry and make this info available to public at large.#SansadWatch— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 29, 2018
#RSQuestionsMissing and NOW #RSQuestionsFound
Thanks to hundreds of you tweeting about it, responses are up on #RajyaSabha website
Q.668- https://164.100.158.235/question/annex/246/Au668.pdf
Q.714- https://164.100.158.235/question/annex/246/Au714.pdf
Is the response satisfactory? pic.twitter.com/H4lccvOOXf— Maadhyam (@_maadhyam_) July 30, 2018