As Om Birla completes four years in office as Speaker of the Lok Sabha on Monday, he asserted that the House took various decisions collectively through discussions and, in the process, enhanced India's image as the "Mother of Democracy".
Birla was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha on this day in 2019. The five-year term of the present (17th) Lok Sabha ends on June 16, 2024.
Seeking to make the House a "powerful medium of expression of public sentiments", efforts were made to provide adequate opportunities to all the members to present their opinion, Birla said.
"Be it discussion on bills or Zero Hour, more members expressed their views than before," he said in a series of tweets.
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He noted that the four years of the 17th Lok Sabha were also remarkable from the point of view of legislative work. In the last 11 sessions, a total of 162 bills were introduced and 169 bills were passed, he pointed out.
The 17th Lok Sabha also saw greater participation of women in discussing bills as compared to the previous Lok Sabhas, Birla said.
During the past four years, with the active efforts of the members and the cooperation of the government, the House has been successful in ensuring accountability of the Executive.
Replies received from the government under Rule 377 (under which members raise issues of urgent public importance) increased. During the Question Hour, too, more questions were answered orally, the Speaker pointed out.
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During the last 11 sessions of the Lok Sabha held in the four-year period, the work productivity of the House stood at 93.09 per cent, Birla said, crediting the cooperation and active participation of the members.
He said as Speaker, he received cooperation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leaders of all political parties as well as members. All the MPs tried to fulfil the hopes and expectations of the people through discussion and dialogue, he added.
Referring to the recent inauguration of the new Parliament building, Birla said it is a symbol of the potential and capabilities of emerging India, which will become a catalyst to build a developed nation by 2047.
