Amid Assembly celebrations, two lament ‘weakening’ of values

While Governor B L Joshi, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, former chief minister and chief guest N D Tiwari talked only about the history of the state legislature, it was left to BJP legislature party leader Hukum Singh and senior Congress member Pramod Tiwari to stress on the diminution of democratic values in the functioning of the legislature over the years.

Speaking on the first day of the three-day quasquicentennial celebrations on the completion of 125 years of the state legislature, Singh said the legislators should introspect over the "shameful and violent" incidents that took place inside Vidhan Sabha in 1993 and 1997, when more than 50 members were injured when they clashed and hit each other with microphones.

Members should take a pledge never to lower the dignity of the House, they should also resolve to listen to the Governor's address despite any external pressure over them, and should not obstruct the address by showing black flags, said Singh.

He lamented that successive governments had made it a practice to get the budget passed in five minutes, and said that the sessions must run for a longer period to provide elected public representatives an opportunity to raise the voices of the people they represented.

He pointed out that the constitutional posts of the Assembly's deputy speaker and Legislative Council's deputy chairman had been vacant for years only because these posts go to an Opposition member. Further, it was a bad trend that the House committees were constituted, but never conduct any meetings.

Congress MLA Pramod Tiwari said it was distressful that the days of the House sessions were becoming less and less. Rules should be made so that a government be dissolved if it fails to run the session for a minimum of 60 days in a year. He said the rules should also be changed so that the question hour is never stalled.

... contd.

ALSO READ

At AMU, students more bothered about ban on motorbikes than wearing sherwanis

Mulayam pep talk for backward caste leaders

Acquitted in riot case, Varun free of all charges in Pilibhit

Lokayukta files complaint on ‘misuse’ of MLA funds