Lok Sabha Speaker to open meet today
2 min readPATNA: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and heads of legislative bodies from almost all states and union territories reached here on Friday to participate in the 6th India region conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) which began this evening with its executive body meeting. Mahajan chaired the meeting.
Mahajan will formally inaugurate the conference at Gyan Bhawan here on Saturday. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar will attend the inaugural session. Bihar assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary will deliver the welcome address.
The conference will hold discussions mainly on two topics — ‘Parliament’s role in the development agenda’ and ‘Legislature and Judiciary — Two important Pillars of Democracy’. Lok Sabha Estimates Committee chairperson and MP Murli Manohar Joshi will deliver the keynote address on ‘Parliament’s role in the development agenda’ while Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will deliver the keynote address on ‘Legislature and Judiciary’.
Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and leader of opposition in legislative assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav will also grace the inaugural session. Chairperson of CPA Executive Committee, Emilia M Lifaka, will address the delegates. Present and former members of state legislature and other dignitaries will also attend the inaugural ceremony.
Bihar governor Satya Pal Malik will address the valedictory session at Bihar Vidhan Sabha on February 18. Lok Sabha Speaker, assembly Speaker, Deputy Chairman of Bihar Vidhan Parishad Md Haroon Rashid, CPA’s secretary-general Akbar Khan and delegates will attend the valedictory session.
The CPA has 180 branches formed in legislatures of Commonwealth countries enjoying parliamentary democracy. All the CPA branches are geographically grouped into nine Commonwealth regions.
The CPA India Region, which was earlier a part of CPA Asia Region, became an independent unit on September 7, 2004. The India Region consists of the India Union Branch (Parliament of India) and 31 state/union territory branches. Such conferences are held once in two years and the 5th conference was held in 2015 in Goa.
The 6th India region conference of CPA is likely to be attended by about 100 delegates from across the world.
Courtesy: TNN
