A resolution adopted at the All-India Conference of Presiding Officers, Chief Ministers, Parliamentary Affairs ministers and other functionaries on Discipline and Decorum in Parliament and Legislatures in Delhi on November 25, 2001, had fixed a minimum of 110 days of sittings of Parliament and 90 and 50 days of sittings of Legislatures depending on the size of the states.
Big states are classified as those having at least 100 members and small states as those having less than 100 members in the state legislatures.
The 40-member Mizoram legislature hardly met the target for want of adequate government businesses to transact.
The highest number of days the Assembly sat for since 2000 was in 2001 when it had a session lasting 24 days, less than half of the recommended days by the Presiding Officers' Conference held in the same year.
It sat for only 14 days in 2010 and 17 days in 2005 which included a one-day special session.
The Speaker of the Mizoram Assembly, R Romawia, says that it is mainly the responsibility of the executive (government) to ensure that the legislature sits for more days so that the law-makers would be able to fulfil their responsibilities towards the people who elected them.
"If the government has more businesses to be deliberated, then the sessions would be prolonged," Romawia said.
He explained that the duration of the session depends on the number of government businesses as intimated by the Business Advisory Committee to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
"Private members can also introduce bills but it is hardly known in Mizoram," Romawia said, adding "If we can have longer sessions, different subject committees could have taken up bills and study them before being deliberated in the House".
0 comments:
Post a Comment