All India Presiding Officers Conference held in Guwahati

GUWAHATI: The centenary celebration of the All India Presiding Officers Conference (AIPOC), the Assam Legislative Assembly was held here on Friday.

Former speaker of Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Tenzing Norbu Thongdok attended the conference as the chief guest and deliberated on the topic - Independence of State Legislative Assemblies and Parliamentary Procedures.

During his address, Thongdok said accountability of organs in the government constitute one of the paramount importance for balancing power. For which various organs including Ministers, Judiciary, presiding officers, and legislatures will have to be accountable, he stressed.

Further, he suggested the State government and Ministry of Parliamentary affairs to establish a faultless e-Vidhan.

"As sufficient technologies are available today to work from distance, members who are physically located far away from the legislative houses should be permitted to use technology to connect themselves to work of the house and committees except on ceremonial occasions like Governors address, motion of no confidence and passing of budget. For this we must seek liberal intervention from State government and Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for establishing a faultless e-Vidhan," Thongdok opined.

He also stressed on allowing members to work even during non-session periods.

"A member continues to represent his or her constituency despite the absence of session and floor. The rules of procedure must facilitate the members to discharge their duties continuously. They should be allowed to seek information from the government, ask question to it, generate discussion on public policies and send legislative proposal to trigger the government to think and respond besides working in committees. Thus the members will become full time Legislatures. This would also justify the salaries and allowances paid to the members during non-session periods," he asserted.

The welcome address of the conference was delivered by Speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly Hitendra Nath Goswami.

He said the centenary programme will be celebrated in four phases on quarterly basis.

"During the next three quarters we have decided to organize various programmes of importance and also to publish a coffee table book of the Assam Legislative Assembly highlighting the significant activities since 1937," Goswami added.

It is to be mentioned that ex-speakers and ex-principal secretaries of the Assam Legislative Assembly were also felicitated in the programme. The ex speakers are – Pulakesh Baruah, Prithvi Majhi, and Ranjeet Kumar Dass. The ex-principal secretaries are – Gauranga Prasad Das, Dibakar Talukdar, Pranab Kumar Das, and BC Das.

In the occasion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, Minister of Water Resources Keshab Mahanta, GDD Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya, and Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia were present among others.

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