Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Hriday Naryan Dikshit will represent the state in the six-day 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) being held in Kampala, capital of Uganda, from September 24 to 29.
Speakers of all state assemblies and Union territories of India along with secretaries of the Assembly secretariats will participate in the CPC. All the delegates from India will be given diplomatic passport.
Dikshit will address the CPC on September 27 on the issue of combating rapid urbanisation and rural decline.
Principal Secretary of UP Assembly, Pradeep Dubey, will speak on ‘Communication, parliament or interface of the public with the parliamentarians’.
The Ministry of External Affairs had in a day-long programme on August 28, briefed the speakers, secretaries of state assemblies on the issues to be discussed at the CPC. The secretaries of almost all the Union ministries were also present during the briefing.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will lead the Indian delegation to the CPC. Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Harivansh, will also be part of the Indian delegation.
The CPC is being organised by the London headquartered Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) comprising 52 nation states, all former colonies of Great Britain.
As per the established convention of the CPA, members of the delegation of each nation state can undertake pre or post conference study tour of three nations. The UP delegation on a pre conference will visit London and Hague, the capital of the Netherlands. UP Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit along with Pradeep Kumar Dubey will go to London for a two-day visit on September 20. The Secretary of UP Legislative Council will also accompany the delegation. Chairman of the Council, Ramesh Yadav, is indisposed so he will not be part of the UP delegation.
In London, the UP Assembly Speaker will meet the Indian Diaspora at the Indian high commission on September 20. He will also meet the MPs of the House of Commons, particularly the MPs of Indian origin, on September 22. The UP delegates will also conduct a tour of the House of Commons in London.
The speaker will later visit Hague, the capital of the Netherlands, where the executive branch of the Dutch government is located. In Hague Dikshit will release a self-authored book ‘The Way India Thinks’. He will also meet the MP of the Dutch House of Representatives and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Dutch House of Representatives.