UP Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana on Tuesday felicitated senior members of the state assembly who have been elected to the lower house of the state legislature for five terms or more.
Satish Mahana said the objective of this initiative is to enhance the communication among the leaders of different political parties and ensure their respect and dignity as they have been voted by people for five or more terms.
“It is our duty to ensure the respect and dignity of the senior members of the house. The members have divergent views and pursue different ideologies. The respect of the senior members should be ensured,” he added.
The senior leaders felicitated on the occasion included former UP Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey; Avadhesh Prasad, who was first elected to UP assembly in 1977; Independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, Shivpal Yadav, Lalji Verma, Surya Pratap Shahi, Om Prakash Singh, Jai Pratap Singh, Mehboob Ali, Arvind Giri, Pooran Prakash, Sriram Chauhan, Baawan Singh, Farid Mehfooz Kidwai, Chowdhary Lakshmi Narayan, and Ram Krishna Bhargav.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna appreciated the initiative taken by the assembly speaker. He said Satish Mahana had laid the foundation for many new traditions and in the first session of the 18th UP assembly, the House was not adjourned even for a day.
He said wishing the members of the house on their birthday during the session of the house was also a welcome tradition started on the initiative of Mahana.
Mata Prasad Pandey welcomed the initiative taken by the assembly speaker. He said the treasury benches and the opposition may have different views on certain issues, but maintaining decorum and dignity of the House is the collective responsibility of all the members.