Saturday, July 30 2005 15:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Maintaining that Executive accountability to the Legislature was crucial in Parliamentary Democracy, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today (July 30, 2005) said there should be focus on how to enhance accountability factor by strengthening the committee system.

The role of Committee on Government assurances and departmentally related Standing Committees was pivotal and efforts should be made to secure implementation of Government assurances, he said inaugurating a conference of Presiding officers of Legislative Bodies in India.

The concept of Executive accountability to the legislature was as old as Parliamentary democracy itself, Chatterjee said adding it was primarily aimed at ensuring that the government of the day performs to the best of its ability for public good.

Referring to the coalition politics, he said the wide array of diversities in the society as also the social, economic and political compulsions of the day were bound to get reflected in the legislative chambers.

"In a vibrant and pulsating democracy like ours it is but natural that some heat and dust was generated in the floors of the legislatures, especially in an era of coalition politics," he said.

"As presiding officers, all of us have to facilitate the smooth and orderly conduct of the business of the house. We have to enable the members to raise issues of topical importance, of course within the rules laid down for the purpose," he said

"We also have to let all sections of the house participate meaningfully in the proceedings," Chatterjee said adding it was a challenging task, which warranted a judicious blend of wisdom, dignity and commitment to ideals of Parliamentary democracy.

Referring to developments in Jharkhand assembly where he had opposed judicial intervention, he said "My prime consideration, as the Presiding Officer of the highest legislative body in the country, was the erosion of the independence of the Legislature. I desired that the Conference should discuss how the Legislature and the Presiding Officers should address the issue if the Court continues to pass such orders."

"Noting that policies and programmes of the Executives are constantly subjected to Parliamentary scrutiny", he said.

"We have introduced several innovations in the practices and procedures relating to the working of the two Houses with a view to safeguarding Executive accountability to the Legislature and bringing in more transparency in governance," he added.

On e-governance, he said Government of India has approved the National E-governance Action Plan for implementation during the year 2003-07 which seeks to lay the foundation and provide impetus for long-term growth of e-Government in the country.

The plan also seeks to create the right governance and institutional mechanism, set up core infrastructure and policies, and implements a number of Mission Mode Projects at the Centre, state and integrated service levels to create a citizen-centric and business-centric environment for governance, he said.