The 10th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) India Region Conference concluded on Tuesday with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expressing concern over commotion and acrimony in legislatures and asking presiding officers to ensure that they remain centres of dignified discussions.

Addressing the concluding session of the conference, Mr Birla said that the issue of disturbances in legislatures was discussed with the presiding officers from time to time and they were urged to conduct House proceedings with dignity, decorum, and in accordance with Indian values and standards.

The traditions and systems of the House should be Indian in nature, and the policies and laws should strengthen the feeling of Indianness to achieve the resolution of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’, he observed. There should be discussions on the policies and programmes of the government with everyone’s participation, he said.

Stressing that the role of legislatures is important in the development of any country and state, Mr Birla observed that democratic institutions should constantly endeavour to engage with the public and address their needs and aspirations.

He said that presiding officers should take necessary steps to make democratic institutions of the country transparent, accountable, and result-oriented. He suggested that for the effective functioning of the legislatures, new members should be given comprehensive training on the functioning, dignity, and decorum of the House, in addition to being made aware of how to utilise the House instruments available to raise issues of public concern.

The Lok Sabha Speaker said that presiding officers should maintain continuous and consistent dialogue across parties and set new standards in politics.

Expressing happiness that the legislative bodies are digitising processes and records in legislatures in their states and taking measures for capacity building of public representatives using information technology, Mr Birla hoped that such measures would go a long way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of legislatures.

He suggested that state legislatures should enhance the pace of digitisation, wherever they are lagging, so that the vision of ‘one nation, one digital platform’ could be realised. He assured that the issues raised by the presiding officers during the conference, such as financial autonomy, the decreasing number of days in the sessions of the Houses, e-Vidhan, etc. will be discussed further, and acceptable solutions will be found.

Mr Birla hoped that the two-day conference would bring visible results in the functioning of legislatures. The presiding officers should work with new thinking, new vision, and make new rules and policies for the future, he suggested. He emphasised that the benefits of sustainable and inclusive development should reach the last person in society.

Forty-two presiding officers, including four chairpersons and 25 speakers along with their principal secretaries/secretaries and accompanying officers from different states attended the conference.

The theme of the conference was “The Role of Legislative Bodies in the attainment of Sustainable and Inclusive Development.”