Speaker Dinesh Oraon has said that legislations in the Assembly should be passed in such a way that it could be implemented easily during the execution and also be beneficial for the common man. Oraon was talking to The Pioneer on Wednesday after he returned from a three-day conference of lok Sabha Speaker and Assembly Speakers at lucknow.
“Discussion basically revolved around two issues. Firstly, contribution of parliamentary proceedings in the overall development of the country or the State and secondly, feasibility of smooth switch-over to the paper-less Parliament,” said Oroan. Speakers, he said, concerned with the increasing interference of Judiciary during the execution of the legislation passed in the Houses, opined that the legislations in the Assembly should be done in such a way that there does not arise a chance of dispute during its implementation.
“It was also suggested that the members, during legislation, should look into the feasibility of its implementation without giving a chance of dispute,” added Oraon. “Although, we are making efforts here in Jharkhand, Goa and Himachal Pradesh have really gone a long way in this direction and are likely to achieve the goal of 100 per cent paperless houses soon,” he said.
“It cannot be implemented over a fortnight, but discussion over the practical aspects of implementing the idea in the houses took place at large during the conference where representatives from different parts of the country expressed their views. The hurdles coming in the ways of its implementation were put on the table following which suggestions also came in to remove them,” Oraon added.
The Speaker further added that the adaptation of paperless culture by the Assemblies will save money amounting to several crore as well as time taken in printing and distribution of those materials. “Even though Jharkhand Assembly is fully prepared to implement online ‘Question Management System’ (QMS), its implementation is being delayed only due to administrative lethargy of Government departments,” said the Speaker.
Officials of Assembly Secretariat also asserted that most of the departments have not even appointed ‘Nodal Officers’ for the purpose, neither have they sent their staff for training to handle online QMS. While at least 15 staffs at different levels have been imparted training for the purpose so that the system could be run in an effective way. Online questions, however, are currently being sent to the departments manually, but to avoid any confusion, only manual answers are being taken as authentic ones and are kept in records. As soon as the departments adopt it and get accustomed to the system, the Assembly will fully switch over to the online QMS.
A four-day convention of presiding officers, speakers and secretaries of legislative assemblies and councils was held at lucknow from January 31 to February 3 chaired by lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and attended by speakers of all major States in the country. Apart from the other issues, discussions also took place for making business in legislative Assemblies paperless...and more effective computerisation.