Thongdok suggests action plans for strengthening CPA-India region
NEW DELHI, Apr 16: Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker TN Thongdok participated in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association – India Region (CPA-IR) meeting which was held at the Parliament House here on Monday.
During the meeting, convened by the Lok Sabha speaker to discuss zonal activities, Thongdok suggested a few action plans for strengthening CPA-India Region, including restructuring the format of the North East Region Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meet, “so that officers of the state legislatures from the rank of deputy secretary converge and debate upon procedural issues and present a report to the presiding officers of the North East region legislatures and thereafter the suggestions are deliberated by the presiding officers and implemented.”
He demanded substantive subvention from the parliament and the union parliamentary affairs ministry for revamping the functioning of the North East Regional Institute of Parliamentary Studies Training and Research.
Thongdok also requested the secretariats of both houses of the parliament, and the union parliamentary affairs ministry, to “liberally assist the state legislatures in Zone III to build appropriate data banks on legislative and other matters concerning each state legislature in Zone III, for expediting more meaningful digitalization of functions and for ushering in inter-legislative connectivity.”
He further requested the parliament and the union government to set apart suitable allocations in the budget of the external affairs ministry (Democratic Assistance Fund) for providing technical assistance for promoting constitutional and parliamentary activities in countries that are contiguous to the states in the Northeast, such as Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, “so that democratic bridges are steadily built to neutralize negative geopolitical change of countries in the region.”
Thongdok also suggested holding a session of both the houses of the parliament “at least once in five years” in any of the NE states, and holding of one special session of Parliament in the entire lifetime of every Lok Sabha, exclusively for issues relating to the Northeast region.
Highlighting the actions already taken by in the Arunachal Pradesh legislative assembly for strengthening the CPA-India region, he said there has been comprehensive revision of rules relating to the committees of the Arunachal Pradesh legislative assembly, which came into effect from October, 2017.
“Rules relating to the house are under revision and will be ready for enforcement by the next session, 2018, while the Arunachal Institute of Parliamentary Administration is being set up to promote the idea Speaker’s Research Initiative – as a continuous academic support system to ministers and MLAs – and build capacity amongst legislators and legislative staff through appropriate training,” Thongdok said.
