Upper House should help in fulfilling people's needs:AP Guv

Hyderabad, Apr 2 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Governor Rameshwar Thakur today said the Upper House should help in fulfilling the needs of the people in a qualitative and sustainable manner.

Speaking after inaugurating the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council after a gap of over two decades here, the Governor said the founding fathers of the Constitution had a great vision of independent India and desired that the nation should have bi-cameral Legislature. The Upper House has been playing a great role in democratic functioning of many nations, he added.

''The House of Lords in Britain, the Senate in the US and our Rajya Sabha have greatly contributed to express the consensus of the public, combined with the wisdom and experience of its members.

Dr Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other great visionaries and Constitutional experts had defended the need for the Upper House in offering advise in the making of the law,'' the Governor said defending the decision of the state government to revive the Council which was abolished 22 years ago.

Mr Thakur said India had neither a totally unitary structure like Britain nor a complete Federal structure like the US. ''It combines in itself the unitary spirit of the British Constitution and the Federal freedom of the US,'' he added.

The Governor said the responsibility of the members of Lok Sabha and the state Legislative Assemblies had heavily increased due to the enormous increase of population and political awareness of the public.

Congratulating the newly-elected members of the Council, he expressed hope that the upper House would fulfill the great hopes of the state in giving the needed guidance to all other institutions and become an excellent body serving the interests of the people.

Sixty four members of the Council, including 12 nominated by the Governor, were later sworn in by pro tem Chairman Puvvada Nageswara Rao.

Earlier in the day, the Governor administered oath of office and secrecy to pro tem Speaker at the Raj Bhavan. Opposition TDP, TRS and BJP boycotted the programme while Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues attended it.

UNI