Hyderabad: The state Legislature needs longer sessions and not just hold sittings to meet constitutional obligations of a particular number of sessions each year, Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Wednesday calling on all concerned to give serious attention to the matter. The Minister’s call came at the inaugural session of a two-day orientation programme for MLAs and MLCs organized by the Legislature secretariat at the MCR HRD Institute in the city.The event during which various sessions are being held on different topics to help new and old legislators get a good grip of rules, procedures and how to become an effective MLA or an MLC, however, saw poor participation from the legislators with only 42 of the 119 MLAs, and 12 of the 40 MLCs attending the inaugural session prompting Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu, Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar and Legislative Council Chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy urging everyone to attend.Uttam said shorter and fewer sessions may be good for the ruling party which use this ruse to become less answerable to the public. “We must have longer sessions, for many more days. It is remarkable that after 75 years, democracy continues in India in the shape it is while it has fallen by the wayside in many other countries due to lack of accountability by the rulers,” Uttam said.He also urged the Speaker and Council Chairman to take the Question Hour seriously, adding that “if you do so, then the government will have to take it seriously. And everyone should be punctual in attending the sessions, stay for the full sessions. My experience is that being a good MLA or an MLC will also help in returning to the House by getting re-elected as people pay attention to these aspects.”The Speaker agreed on the need for longer sessions and said unlike in the past when sessions just lasted four or five days, from now on, the sessions will be longer. He said knowledge of rules and procedures will help legislators be more effective, and recalled days in the past when debates were so engaging that new movie releases were postponed as people were more interested in the House proceedings.Sridhar Babu, responding to Uttam’s call for longer sessions, said the government will not hesitate on this and will move forward taking all sides into confidence on the subject. He said MLAs and MLCs should also bear in mind that it is not TRPs on news channels that count and some make comments to hit the headlines. “People pay attention and watch what we are saying and doing. And people take cues from the language of their leaders and adopt that manner of speaking. A good understanding of rules and regulations will help all become better legislators,” he said.
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