Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cracked the whip on ministers who skip Parliament duty and asked for the names of the absentees.

Modi raised the issue at the weekly closed-door meeting of party MPs from both Houses of Parliament after reports that a number of ministers, including some seniors, were not present in the House despite being rostered for duty. In both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, ministers are kept on duty for two hours every day.

“The Prime Minister was very angry. He made it clear that neglect of Parliament duty by ministers will not be tolerated. He asked for the list of absentee ministers by the evening,” an MP present at the meeting said.

This is not the first time the Prime Minister has raised the issue of absentee MPs and ministers and warned them of consequences. The matter had come up more than once during the first tenure of the Modi government when it was found that a large number of MPs were missing from the House during the passage of key bills.

During the first tenure of the Modi government, absence of ministers and MPs from the Rajya Sabha had led to severe embarrassment for the government. The lack of numbers on the government’s side had helped the Opposition push through a crucial amendment to the backward commission bill.

BJP chief Amit Shah had sought a written explanation from all the absentee members.

The weekly meeting of the parliamentary party which Modi addresses is mainly used to pull up party MPs, task them with work or lecture them on various issues.

Apart from slamming the absentees, Modi asked the MPs to think out of the box and do something unique in their constituencies for the larger good of the people. He talked about water conservation and said MPs should come up with innovative ways in consultation with local groups to conserve water.

At one such meeting early this month, Modi had lashed out at party MLA Akash Vijayvargiya for assaulting a civic official with a cricket bat and called for his sacking, underscoring that his conduct was unacceptable. So far, no action has been taken against the MLA who happens to be the son of powerful party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.