Nagaland Legislative Assembly celebrates 50th anniversary
Principal Correspondent
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 29
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan underscored the need for the Nagas to work towards providing reservation to their women folks. She made the remark in the context of Nagaland Legislative Assembly celebrating its 50th anniversary without a single woman member being elected to the 60-member House.
Addressing a press conference after gracing the golden jubilee celebration of Nagaland Assembly as the chief guest here on Saturday, Mahajan described Naga women as hard working as well as well educated who are ahead of men in many fields and are pursuing their careers in different parts of the country.
She said it is not that the women are being given something out of the blue but they do deserve their rights.
Asserting to work towards passing the Women Reservation Bill in the Lower House of the Parliament, she stressed that women should get equal opportunity with men in every field of life and should also enjoy their rights in policy making and decision making.
“I am for reservation, but it does not mean favouring them (women) as they constitute half of the population in the country, and it is necessary for women to participate in decision and policy making bodies,” she said.
“As human being, she has a right and nobody can take away her rights,” the LS Speaker said while affirming to try her best to pass the Women Reservation Bill in Parliament during her tenure.
She also suggested that all the political parties come together and think over to give the deserved reservation to women in the country.
On the issue of Leader of Opposition status in the Lok Sabha, she said the decision has already been made as per the rules and after consulting the constitutional authorities which state that there has to be at least 1/10th members of Parliament to get the status of Leader of Opposition.
Earlier in her address during main celebration, Mahajan said the State of Nagaland occupies a special and unique position in the socio-cultural landscape of our country because of its scenic beauty, lush greenery, rich tradition of arts and crafts and serene ambience and its friendly and self-respecting people.
Maintaining that Nagaland has tremendous potential for socio-economic development of its people, she called upon the Naga legislators to strive to ensure that governance in the State remains accountable, transparent, responsible and responsive to the people’s needs and demands.
The LS Speaker also asserted that the Central government is ready to help the State move ahead in every sphere, including providing developmental funds as there is no dearth of money. She added that the Central ministries are keeping aside at least 10% of the funds for development of the Northeast region.
She, however challenged the State government to think for the youth, not just their education but skill development and employability, before passing any law or act. “Urbanisation and providing employment opportunities to the youth are key focus areas,” she stated.
The LS Speaker was also appreciative of the prevalence of democracy in the State for centuries while citing that even today the heads of the villages are elected at local level through democratic procedure and they believe in working collectively.
She expressed her happiness on visiting the State for the first time and described Nagaland as the land of Gods (Deva Bhumi). Mahajan said Nagaland’s beautiful ambience, mountains, waterfalls and forests are matchless and far superior to any adventure tourism place in the world.
“I have seen Switzerland and I can say with confidence that Nagaland is equally beautiful,” she said. “we have to convert the potential of tourism opportunities into reality and we are committed towards it,” she stated.
The LS Speaker also unveiled the golden jubilee monolith and inaugurated the photo exhibition besides releasing the Nagaland Assembly souvenir and memento on the occasion.
Explaining that the role and responsibilities of the legislatures have significantly increased, she said the biggest challenge before the democratic institutions and the legislators is to live up to the expectation of the people.
She pointed out that the legislative bodies have multi-dimensional functions to perform – ranging from ventilating people’s grievances to making laws, to debating policies and subjects of public importance and to keeping surveillance over the functioning of the administration.
“Such public responsibilities require the members of the legislatures to be true and faithful to the principles of democracy,” she said.
Mahajan stressed that in order to further consolidate the democratic freedom, “we must combat the forces and elements which try to vitiate our socio-political culture and undermine our institutions of democracy”.
She also appealed to the legislators to come forward to contribute in further strengthening the representative system of governance. “For us, there is no alternative to and any substitute for our democratic structure based on the parliamentary system,” she added.
In this direction, she said, “We all have to strive together to ensure that the politics of confrontation and intolerance finds no place in our democratic set up. We must collectively work to give way to politics of reconciliation and accommodation in the larger interest of the unity of the nation and the prosperity of our people.”
Speakers and Deputy Speakers from West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Sikkim and Manipur also attended the celebration.
