Legislative Assembly is must: Perl Committee

Port Blair, Aug 17 (UNI) The parliamentary standing Perl Committee on Home Affairs in its recent report submitted to Lok Sabha has pointed out that relief and rehabilitation work in Andaman could have been carried out in a better way if it had an Assembly before the tsunami catastrophe.

Had there been a Legislative Assembly here the relief operation would have been addressed in a better manner, stated the detailed report of the committee in the Lok Sabha on August second.

The committee also suggested few monitoring mechanism is required till a final decision is taken to set up a Legislative Assembly here.

"The parliamentary committee report is similar to our long pending demand for an Assembly here and this is a very positive sign," said Manoranjan Bhakta, the lone Member of Parliament of Andaman.

The committee had also expressed its view that the territory had no public representative to supervise, consider or monitor the functions of the government apart from a Lieutenant Governor.

The committee also stressed upon the justification to set up a Legislative Assembly here or at least a Pradesh Council.

The Island with 572 small and big islands is presently a Union Territory and is centrally governed.

Besides having three Districts, with the promulgation of the Andaman and Nicobar Island (Panchayat) Regulation, 1994, three-tier Panchayati Raj institutions have been introduced in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. One Zila Parishad, 7 Panchayat Samitis and 67 Gram Panchayats have been set up in the Union territory.

Assembly is a must because the administration of the entire territory cannot be left to the Panchayati Raj alone, the committee said in its report.

UNI SKR PP KLC1314