PANAJI
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday expressed concern over the falling number of sittings of legislatures even as he gave the benefit of doubt to the Goa House for "more than 40 days sittings" as he addressed the MLAs at the legislative Assembly complex in Porvorim on Thursday.
Birla who was addressing the MLAs on 'Viksit Bharat 2047: Role of Elected Representatives' said the best laws emanate from debates and discussions.
Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant were present but all the seven legislators from the Opposition boycotted opposition MLAs boycotted it citing different reasons.
"Results will be best if we have debates and discussions. I am happy that the sittings of the Goa Legislative Assembly are more than 40 days. Nowadays, my concern is that the number of Assembly sittings are coming down. This is a matter of concern," Birla said in his address.
He advised the Goa MLAs to pay heed to problems and issues raised by the citizenry and to endeavour to resolve them.
He said, one of the major responsibilities of the elected representative is to engage with society to know their problems.
"If we know the problems then we can address them," he said, adding that the tendency to "oppose" in addition to criticism of government's programmes and policies, is start whether it is in the State legislatures or even in Parliament.
Every action of the government needs to be discussed, he said and added that there should be discussion when laws are made.
Birla who hails from Rajasthan urged the MLAs to take note of discussions taking place at gram sabhas in villages and raise those matters in the legislature with the aim to resolve them.
"We need to give priority to the aspirations of the public and as per budget they should be fulfilled. If this happens then we can achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047," Birla added.
