Floral tributes paid to Somnath Chatterjee on birth anniversary

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla paid floral tributes to former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chattejee, at his portrait in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, on his birth anniversary, on Thursday.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, MPs, Secretary-General of Lok Sabha Utpal Kumar Singh, former MPs and other dignitaries also paid tributes to Somnath Chatterjee.

Chatterjee was born on July 25, 1929 in Tejpur Assam. He pursued a career in law and joined active politics in 1968. Elected to Lok Sabha for the first time in 1971, he served for a record 10 terms. On June 4, 2004, he was unanimously elected Speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha and served till May 31, 2009.

During his long and distinguished career, Chatterjee contributed immensely to parliamentary system and raised the level of discourse in Lok Sabha. He was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1996 in recognition to his invaluable contribution to strengthening the Indian Parliamentary system.

As Speaker of Lok Sabha Chatterjee took several initiatives and among them was the starting of the 24-Hour Lok Sabha Television in July, 2006 and the hightech Parliamentary Museum in August 2006.