BENGALURU: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla here on Saturday mooted a National Legislative Index (NLI) to rank state assemblies and councils on the basis of their performance.
“The performance of the state assemblies could be assessed on the basis of parameters such as number of sittings held every year, productivity of the House, quality of debates, adoption of technology and efficacy of various committees,” he said after the valedictory of the 11th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA)-India Region Conference.
Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta has been tasked with preparing a proposal on NLI, which will be discussed at the All-India Presiding Officers Conference scheduled to be held in Lucknow in January 2026, he added.
In his speech earlier, he expressed concerns over the “planned deadlock” in the House and stressed the need for comprehensive dialogue among all parties and elected representatives to resolve the issue.
He suggested that rather than disrupt the proceedings of legislatures on ideological or political grounds, lawmakers must resolve to keep the House functioning. Birla emphasised the need to increase the duration of debates and the number of sittings during legislative sessions. “The legislatures should try to ensure maximum participation of youth through political discussions and decisions taken in them. State legislative bodies will try and organise programmes to increase public participation,” he suggested.
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said, “Under the chairmanship of Speaker Birla, several parliamentary committees like SC/ST and women held meetings like a mini-parliament with members from different ideologies debating subjects.”
As many as 45 presiding officers from 26 states and union territories participated in the three-day conference organised by the Karnataka Assembly.
Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti, who has won as an MLC for the eighth consecutive term creating a record, and CPA secretary general Stephen Twigg from London were honoured.
No party wrote to me on boycotting JPC: Birla
Birla clarified that no political party has written to him about boycotting the Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine the three Bills that seek the removal of top government functionaries arrested for 30 consecutive days on serious charges.
He was referring to opposition parties boycotting JPC, which will look into three bills introduced in the Lok Sabha -- the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill; the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill; and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill. Birla said he has sought names from parties to be included in the JPC. Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Shiv Sena (UBT) have declined to be part of JPC. Congress is yet to decide on it.
Manipur debated elaborately: Birla
Birla said, “Manipur violence has been debated at each interval when the bill on the state was tabled. Also Manipur’s demand for development grants was discussed,” he said, replying to a query on how he interpreted Modi’s visit to the troubled state after Parliament debated the issue.
On allegations by opposition parties that they are not given adequate time to debate on Operation Sindoor, Birla said he acted as per the rule book. “In Parliament, there is a system to allot the time for political parties based on their numbers (MPs). The House ran for four hours more than the allocated time during the debate on Operation Sindoor. Efforts to give time to all members went in vain as the session was disrupted,” he said.
CPA adopts four resolutions
The CPA adopted four resolutions -- Eliminating deadlocks and disruptions inside Houses to increase public trust in democratic institutions; strengthen the research and reference wings of state legislative institutions in collaboration with Parliament. The meeting also resolved to ensure greater use of digital technology in legislative institutions; and to increase the participation of youth and women.