Parliaments need to ensure public participation in parliamentary oversight, improving governance: Om Birla

New Delhi [India], Aug 20 : Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that parliaments need to ensure public participation in parliamentary oversight and improving governance in this era of the information technology revolution.
Participating through virtual mode in a panel discussion on the theme `Improving governance by bridging the gap between Parliaments and the People' during the ongoing Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (5WCSP), he mentioned that Parliament of India, representing the aspirations of 1.35 billion people, plays a proactive role in ensuring engagement with people.
He said that this involves the usage of five 'I's - 'Interact' involving the interaction of parliamentarians with the public and adopting information and feedback in the working of the House, 'Inform' involving means of communication to continuously enlighten the public government programmes, 'Involve' which includes ensuring participation of people in the development process, 'Imbibe' involving internalisation of feedback in the administrative process, and 'Improve' which includes bringing out the desired progress in the administrative schemes and processes.
Observing that the Indian Parliament is the highest legislative institution of the nation, Birla said that Parliament is fully engaged with the people and always reinforces transparency and good governance.
According to an official release, the Speaker mentioned that even during the COVID-19 pandemic the Parliament maintained 24X7 connect between the parliamentarians and people to ensure that the needy and the underprivileged were provided necessary relief and assistance without delay.
He said that the strong parliamentary committee system works to ensure public participation in legislative oversight work.
Also, through the direct telecast of proceedings of parliament on the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Television Channels, dedicated websites and social media platforms, it has been ensured that Parliament reaches every house of the country.
Participants shared their experiences and views on a number of issues, such as gender equality, the participation of youth in the political process, climate change, human mobility and terrorism during the two-day conference.
The Speaker yesterday attended the inaugural session of Virtual 5WCSP.
The Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (5WCSP) was organized jointly by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Geneva, and the Parliament of Austria with the support of the United Nations (UN).
This was the first time that an international Parliamentary Conference of such a magnitude was organized in a virtual mode.
The theme of the 5WCSP was `Parliamentary leadership for more effective multilateralism that delivers peace and sustainable development for the people and planet'. The second part of the conference will be held next year in the physical mode in Vienna, Austria.
The conference, held in the backdrop of the current crisis of COVID-19 pandemic, aims to strengthen multilateralism and international cooperation in order to rebuild a better world.