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Gandhinagar: The just concluded session of the 12th Gujarat Assembly lost not one hour of its time, an achievement of sorts considering the unruly nature of proceedings witnessed in legislatures elsewhere in the country.
Speaker Ashok Bhatt said members of both the ruling party and the opposition exhibited high standards of tolerance and harmony during the assembly session that began on January 18 and ended on March 26.
Four Bills and three resolutions were passed unanimously and there were no extensions of the session to compensate for disturbances or adjournments, said Bhatt.
"I began this on an experimental basis. I contacted all the members before the session and made them understand the importance of the smooth functioning of the house. I appealed to their sense of purpose," he said in an interview.
The members are the representatives of the people and if people are to regain faith in democratic traditions, it is necessary for members to help in the smooth functioning of the house, he said. "I feel my efforts are paying off."
Commendable spirit
The session, the 106th session since Gujarat state came into being, witnessed 22 urgent questions being asked and answered, said a satisfied Bhatt, sounding particularly pleased that not a moment had been lost to postponements or adjournments.
The way leaders of both the treasury and opposition benches put forth their views and conducted discussions was indeed praiseworthy, he said.
Referring to the passing of four Bills unanimously, Bhatt said 14 Bills of the government had been cleared while one was taken back by the government.
All 14 Bills were discussed in an orderly fashion and then passed, he said. "This has set a fine example for the 12th house."
Another notable feature was the way questions had been put and answers given during the Zero Hour, Bhatt said. For the last several years, ministers had been hell bent on scuttling questions during Zero Hour. This time three important issues were raised and discussed, he said.
Attributing the success of the session to the maturity shown by the two sides, he conjectured that the changed mindset could be a result of the three-day Sansadiya Gyan Shibir, a workshop on parliamentary matters, held in Gandhinagar from March 2-4.
Among others who attended the workshop were Bhatt, Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Lok Sabha Secretary general P.D.T. Acharya, former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap, former central minister Arun Shourie, Assembly opposition leader Shaktisinh Gohil, state Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas and former Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad director Bakul Dholakia among others.
Addressing the newly elected members, Chatterjee had, voicing concern over deteriorating standards of behaviour of legislators and parliamentarians, said that common people had begun perceiving a lack of seriousness on the part of the political class in sustaining the democratic structure.
"Frequent disruptions of the legislature and growing confrontational politics have eroded the trust of the common man in our democratic values," he said.
Sounding a note of warning, he told the assembled Gujarat legislators: "It is a matter of serious concern that on the plea of non-functioning of legislatures, other organs are intruding into the area of the legislative organ."
Bhatt also felt that the new developments could be related to the two-party system prevailing in Gujarat. "In other states and parliament it is the multiplicity of parties that leads to all sorts of evils," he said.
Of the 182 legislators in the new assembly, 70 are new faces. The ruling Bharatiya Janata party has 117 members while the main opposition Congress has 59 and the National Congress Party three. Two members are independents.
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