Parliament panels may soon hire private talent as interns

Some lawmakers do hire the services of interns, who work in their offices

Marking a step up for democracy, Parliament may soon rope in bright young scholars who would get an opportunity to work with the standing committees.

Taking a leaf from the US, Canada and the UK, where students and research scholars get to work with Parliamentary panels, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is pushing for induction of interns in the Parliamentary standing committees.

She held a meeting on January 31 with around 16 of the 24 panel heads who supported the idea, but were wary about maintaining secrecy of the proceedings or of the documents available with the panel.

"It is