82nd Presiding Officer Conference begins in Shimla with PM address
Two days 82 presiding Officers Conference began at the historic Council of
Chamber of Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha with the inaugural address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Wednesday.
The Inauguration function of the conference was attended by the Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Prakash Birla, Vice Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan Singh Governor of Himachal Pradesh Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakurleader of Opposition Mr Mukesh Agnihotri among 36 Speakers, Deputy Speakers ,Chairmen and Vice-chairmen of state legislative assembly and council including all the members of Parliament & Assembly of Himachal Pradesh and former state assembly speaker and deputy speaker.
Addressing the conference virtually from New Delhi, the Prime minister greeted the presiding officer and said that after every year the presiding officer assembled here to evolve the quality of debate and decorum in the Parliament and Assembly houses and meetings.
Mr Modi said that presiding officer conference being attended by the number of speakers deputy speaker
Chairman and vice chairman of Parliament, Assemblies and legislative council would deliberate for two days how to improve the quality of debate , discussion and sharing the ideas among members of various political parties going above party lines.
Greeting the participants to join the conference being held after 100 years Mr Modi said that this conference should become historic as the country is also celebrating 75 yrs of Independence as Amrut Uttsav.
Mr Modi emphasized the Presiding officers should also evolve a special and new debate in the parliament and assemblies during the session in which non political discussion could be held above the party lines and some learnt and experienced members who are known for serving public welfare with great repute and could share their views to increase quality and value addition of deliberation and debate.
He said that such type of debates would be of allotted one two hours or more hours in addition to the schedule proceeding in each session as such new type of debate would prove beneficial to the new members and public at large.
PM said that parliament and assembly reflect the diversity of the democracy which should be also weaved into the uniformity or oneness (Aikrupta) as diversity in the legislative culture should be celebrated as grand legacy at the same time uniformity should be there to ensure unity of the nation to further strengthen democratic institutions like Parliament and Assembly.
With formation of new Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, legislative assemblies and councils large number of new members entered as freshers who bring new youthness in the functioning of parliamentary democracy and enrich such bodies with their enthusiasm learning and adopting new aspects.
Mr Modi said that the presiding officers conference would ensure that new legislations and policies are also debated in the session above the partlines to restore the faith of people on the functioning of the legislature beside it would help the accelerate the process of development in the country.
He hoped that Presiding officers should think and also resolve emerging challenges be fore the current parliamentary functioning as it would help to accelerate the process of strengthening the democracy set up in the country.
Prime minister also stressed the need for more digitalization of assemblies. libraries and debates and records of parliamentary institutions which could be exchanged between different state assemblies among each other learning from each other to promote the quality of legislative proceedings and its benefit to the public at large.
The conference begins at 0930 hrs with welcome speech of Himachal Pradesh Assembly speaker Mr Vipin Singh Parmar, leader of Opposition Mr Mukesh Agnihotri, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur Lok Sabha Speaker Vice Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Prakash Birla.
Himachal Pradesh state assembly is simultaneously hosting the presiding officials conference which was being attended by the Principal Secretaries and other senior officials Lok and Rajya Sabha, Secretary Vidhan Sabhaand Vidhan Mandal began on Nov 16 in the state assembly complex.