Meira Kumar emphasises need for adopting best practices

Itanagar, April 28: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday, April 28 emphasised the need for adopting best practices of democratic governance and reinforcing the institution of Parliament.

The range, magnitude and complexity of legislature's activities have grown manifold over the years and now it is not merely an institutional arrangement but a system whose success depends largely on its efficacy, accountability and responsiveness to the people, Kumar said while addressing the inaugural function of the 13th annual conference of the North East Region Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (NERCPA) here.

Speakers, deputy speakers including officials from all eight North Eastern states, including Sikkim, are participating in the two-day conference on "Financial Autonomy of the Legislative Assembly Secretariat adhering to the provision of the Constitution of India".

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), she said, had achieved great success in strengthening democracies and in evolving the role of parliamentary community on issues of vital concern.

"Keeping pace with changing times, the CPA has brought nearly 17,000 parliamentarians from across the commonwealth countries which bears ample testimony not only to the increasing numerical strength of CPA but to its valuable contribution and usefulness," she added.

"Financial autonomy, including the preparation of budget estimates and incurring any expenditure within the allotted grants, is a pre-requisite for ensuring independent existence of legislature," she pointed out saying that even Article 97 of the Constitution has empowered arliament to fix by law the salaries and allowances of the chairman and speaker, including that of deputy chairman and deputy speaker.

PTI