Uttar Pradesh: Raising slogans, banners demean dignity of House, says Lok Sabha speaker

LUCKNOW: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla admonished the “practice” of raising slogans and banners in Parliament and state assemblies (ostensibly by the opposition parties) terming them as “acts which only demean the dignity of the House which people looked up to with much hope and aspiration”.
Speaking at the inauguration of the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) that seeks to turn the UP assembly into a paperless institution, Birla said that maintaining the dignity of the House was crucial to turning it into a "centre of ideas and principles". Birla's criticism of sloganeering in the House comes three days ahead of the first session of the 18th UP assembly, nearly two months after BJP made a historic return to power in the state.
Speculations are rife that SP and its allies with a relatively increased strength in the UP assembly could potentially pose a challenge to the ruling dispensation and put it on the mat over a host of issues.
The Speaker said that the confidence of people in Parliament and the state legislatures have grown over a period of time and they were being considered as the most pertinent centres which could churn out leaders who could take the country to "greater heights". He said that the key duty of the assemblies was making laws and legislations, which crucially required factually rich discussions. He also underscored the need for capacity building of lawmakers and increasing their logical ability.
Birla also affirmed that people have returned the Yogi Adityanath government for the second consecutive time in UP with a "lot of hope". "I expect that as a CM and as the leader of UP assembly, Yogi will take all the political parties together to bring in holistic development of the state," he said.
The Speaker said that the UP assembly has a special space in the socio-political ecosystem of the country. The new system (NeVA), he said, will not only bring in transparency but also hold our public representatives more and more accountable. Birla said that there were growing hopes that UP would usher in a "new era of social and economic development" in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said that when his government introduced a paperless budget two years ago, there were growing aspirations for a digital platform to run the House business. "It is a moment of great pride that the aspirations have been fulfilled," he said, stressing that people should not "run away" from technology - instead embrace it. He said PM Narendra Modi had laid stress on use of technology to wheel out the benefits of the people welfare schemes initiated by the government. "The UP government used technology to reach the person in the last mile, the encouraging results of which are before the people," he said.