Jharkhand Assembly Speaker, Shashank Shekher Bhokta on Wednesday completed a year in office. In a candid talk with The Pioneer, Bhokta asserted that he tried to bring in several positive changes in the Assembly and succeeded in bringing down the number of pending assurances to a large extent despite having a very short tenure.
Bhokta also claimed to have brought the diminishing reputation of the legislature back on track by taming the officials, who had started avoiding the directions passed by the Assembly. Excerpts from an interview:
How do you see the last one year in the office as Speaker of Jharkhand AssemblyIJ
It feels good, especially because I belong to trade unions having interest in introducing new things in life and organisation. Either it is the office or the building, I did put them in order first which were not in good shape when I joined the office. After that I cleared some of the works pending for long including regularisation of Assembly staffs.
What changes have been brought to the Assembly after you joined the officeIJ
There used to be over 3,000 assurances pending with the departments before I joined office. I took a strong note of it and compelled the departmental heads to act positively as a result the number of pending assurances went down to 600 -700 which we are trying to minimize further.
In addition to that, I also tried to implement online Question Management System in the Assembly but due to lackluster attitude of the Executives, it has not yet been implemented till date. Despite repeated requests made by the Assembly officials, at least 10 of the departments did not provided the data. Even IT secretary could not help it.
What are the reasons behind itIJ
It shows the tendency of the Bureaucracy of not paying heed to the Assembly. I have tried to control it regularly as a result of which the departmental heads have started assuring their presence during the Assurance Committee meeting at the Assembly. After I started issuing show cause notices to the officials for avoiding the Assembly by not attending the meetings called by us telling them clearly that Assembly is Supreme at its place and they will have to abide by it. I have tried to put the truth forward due to which things are being corrected…… until and unless issues are put on the table it cannot be improved.
What could not be done that you actually wanted to be done during the last one yearIJ
I have less time left with me as a Speaker. I would not be able to bring remarkable change at this juncture of leaving the office …. I will always regret for not having a new Assembly building. The day I had taken oath, I demanded a new Assembly building from Chief Minister Hemant Soren who had assured me for the same, but the things could not be brought on the ground due to irresponsible attitude of the officials or due to some illogical aspirations of some of the political leaders….I will always have regret for it in my mind for the whole of my life.
What do you think are the major works done by you as a Speaker during the last one yearIJ
Speaker is the head of the legislature. People in this State had forgotten the legislature while remembering the Executive and the Judiciary. They had started considering Assembly as a platform for asking questions and the role of the Speaker ends after the session.
I tried to break this trend remaining in the office continuously trying to put things on track and I tried to make people aware of the role of legislature which also has the executive and judiciary powers. legislature can punish someone and also force the executive as it is responsible towards the legislature. If it is understood clearly by all the three wings of the government, there will democracy in real sense. I only tried to put the provisions of the constitution into notice the people.
Your message to the legislators.
A legislator must try to maintain the reputation the Assembly. There must be opposition against the government but it should be done in the right way. Disrupting the house will never be fruitful for the masses.
