Practice of calling Assembly session without prorogation dangerous for democracy: Guv

Jaipur: Describing Parliament and Legislative Assemblies as temples of democracy, Governor Kalraj Mishra said that people’s representatives should rise above politics and consider issues of public interest sensitively. He said that whatever debates or business take place in the House, it should be for the sustainable development of the common man.

Governor Kalraj Mishra was addressing the concluding session of the All India Conference of Presiding Officers in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly on Thursday and said, “The presiding officers have an important role in parliamentary democracy and they are also guardians of powers and privileges of members of the Legislature.

“The Presiding officers should play their effective role to strengthen democracy. Speaker of the House is the final interpreter of the rules relating to the functioning of the House,” said Mishra.

L S Speaker Om Birla said that it is a privilege and honour for all of us that India has presidency of the G-20. Giving information about the efforts being made by the LS for healthy parliamentary traditions, he said that efforts will be made to ensure uniformity in conduct, rules-procedures and traditions in legislative institutions across the country. He called for efforts to strengthen democracy by rising above the party in parliamentary committees.

Expressing concern over the low number of meetings in the Vidhan Sabha, the Governor said, “Members should effectively discuss the issues related to the public in the House with full preparation. MLAs should be present more and more during the debates on important subjects in the House.” He also emphasised on promoting the private member’s bill more. Mishra said that the Governor is not a person. “He is a constitutional body and when he is satisfied on constitutional grounds that the ordinance is justified, then only he gives approval to it. The power to summon the assembly session on the recommendation of the state government is vested in the Governor. The practice of calling the session directly without proroguing it is dangerous for democratic systems. This gives the MLAs additional opportunities to ask the prescribed number of questions. There is a need to pay serious attention to the formal prorogation of the legislative assemblies and the convening of a new session,” he said.

“Legislative Assemblies should ensure continuous participation of common people in their respective states,” Birla said. “It is the duty of State Assembly to increase people’s sentiment towards institutions. Especially among youth, there should be a spirit so that people’s faith in parliamentary institutions increases,” he said.

Dr Harivansh, Deputy Chairman of RS, specially remembered the self-discipline of Mahatma Gandhi while emphasising on working to enhance the credibility of legislative institutions. “Making laws by the legislative bodies is not the only solution. Progress and development is a continuous practice, so there should be an atmosphere of serious discussion and debate in the House,” he said and called upon the MLAs to come after doing enough homework, present the questions with logic and adopt self-discipline along with conduct of dignity. Assembly Speaker Dr CP Joshi said that Rajasthan has a glorious history of parliamentary traditions. In his address, he highlighted important points from effective functioning of legislature’s purview. He expressed gratitude to presiding officers.

“CM Gehlot should consider regarding financial assistance and Raj government should take lead in this. CM Gehlot announced Rs 5-5 crore MLA fund for MLAs and created history. Now create history by giving the right of financial autonomy to the assembly,” he said. LoP Gulab Chand Kataria, in his address, emphasised on improving the work of legislative committees.