In this episode of the Perspective Prog. based on ‘Assessing Assemblies’. Parliament and State Assemblies are the sounding board of public opinion. These institutions truly reflect the people’s will if it meets frequently and makes effective use of procedural devices to exercise control over the Executive.In India, it is the Executive which decides the number of days the Parliament or Assembly should meet in a year. However, recent reports suggest that over the past few years, State Assemblies are meeting for less and less number of days.Last year (2021) the State Assemblies of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, worked for 11 to 43 days – with Punjab lowest in the tally and Odisha at the top.While Odisha recorded 43 sittings in 2021, the Punjab Assembly sat only for 11 days, which included eight days of the Budget session. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly met only for 17 days over four sessions, fulfilling the bare minimum. This was a minor improvement from its 2020 record of 13 days. The Assemblies of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Haryana and Maharashtra sat for 32, 26, 25, 19, 18 and 15 days respectively in the year 2021. During the same period, for which the assessment was done for states, the Parliament functioned for 58 days, an improvement from 33 days in 2020. Restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic were cited as the primary reason for cutting back on scheduled sittings. On this edition of our programme, we will analyse the impact of reduced sittings of state Assemblies, the concerns cited over abysmally low time devoted to raise questions, debate and deliberate upon legislations and, what is the solution?
Guests:
1. Gian Chand Gupta, Speaker, Haryana Legislative Assembly
2. Dr. C.P. Joshi, Speaker, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly
Anchor: Teena Jha
Producer: Amit Srivastava, Sagheer Ahmad
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