New Delhi: Very soon, MPs and MLAs who rush to the Well of the House, disturb the proceedings with noise, slogans and placards will face stringent action. A committee of Speakers of the state Legislative Assemblies, Chairmen of state Legislative Councils and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is preparing recommendations to this tune.
“All members (MPs and MLAs) are expected to maintain certain decorum. There is a growing feeling that there should be a strong law under which strict action can be taken against those who disturb the House functioning. A committee is looking into it and will very soon give it report. Already two meetings of this committee has taken place. There will be one common law that will be followed across the country in all states assemblies in this regard,” Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Friday during an interaction with a group of journalists from Indian Women’s Press Corps.
In a freewheeling interaction with the mediapersons, the Speaker said that the new Parliament building will have enough provision to switch off the mikes and cameras when members cause disturbance in the House proceedings.
Responding to allegations by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that Opposition’s voice is muzzled inside the Parliament and they are not allowed to speak on important issues, Mr Birla said Mr Gandhi has been several times given out of turn opportunity to speak.
“I make special efforts to give more chance to Mr Gandhiji to speak in the House. Once his name was not in the lottery and he wanted to raise an issue related to his constituency. I gave him special opportunity to raise the matter. Similarly, I gave him out of turn opportunity to speak on an issue despite his name not being in the list of speakers. So, I have gone beyond the rule book to allow him to speak,” Mr Birla said.
He added that all legislative work in the Lok Sabha has invovled intense debate and anyone who wanted to speak on the Bills has been given a chance to speak. “I have allowed debates for four to six hours and no Bill has been passed without a debate. Everyone who wants to speak is allowed to do so,” Mr Birla said.
The Speaker denied that the Parliament debates have become much bitter in the recent times.
“I was reading an old Parliament debate in which Dr Ram Manohar Lohia had said that “even Jawaharlal Nehru’s dogs eat biscuits worth '25 and here people do not get food worth Rs 3.” So debates back then too were very sharp,” the Speaker said.
The Speaker gave details of new initiatives taken to educate MPs with regard to legislations that are introduced. He said experts of the subjects including lawyers are invited to discuss the subject threadbare in order to raise the level of debate. He also said that special efforts have been made to allow women MPs to speak.
The second part of the Budget Session begins from March 2.
