Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday said the biggest challenge before the democratic institutions and the legislators was to live up to the expectation of the people.
Addressing the 50th anniversary celebration of Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA), Mahajan said the legislative bodies had multi-dimensional functions to perform – ranging from ventilating people's grievances to making laws, debating policies and subjects of public importance and 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. The Speaker said 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.
"For us, there is no alternative to and any substitute for our democratic structure based on the parliamentary system," she said. The Speaker said Nagaland occupied a special and unique position in the socio-cultural landscape of the country because of its natural beauty, rich tradition of arts and crafts and its friendly and self-respecting people.
Expressing confidence 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 remained accountable, transparent, responsible and responsive to the peoples' needs and demands.
Earlier, the Lok Sabha Speaker unveiled the golden jubilee monolith and inaugurated a photo exhibition while also releasing the souvenir and memento on the occasion. Speakers and Deputy Speakers of West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Sikkim and Manipur attended the celebration.
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