Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla would inaugurate the 79th conference of presiding officers of legislatures here on Wednesday. The Presiding Officers of many state legislatures would participate in the two-day deliberations. During the conference, the Presiding officers would discuss the issue of disqualification of members of parliament or state legislatures.

Under tenth schedule of the constitution, provisions have been made about disqualification of MPs or MLAs on the basis of change of party.

As per the provision, the question of disqualification is decided by the speaker and his decision is final.

Another important topic of discussion in the conclave is 'Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy and capacity building through in house devices including Zero Hour'.  For the conference, the Lok Sabha speaker has constituted three committees on important subjects.

The committee to evaluate the use of communication and information technology in the functioning of Legislatures is chaired by speaker of Assam, Hitendra Nath Goswami while the speaker of Uttar Pradesh, Hriday Narayan Dixit would chair the committee for smooth functioning of the House. Rajasthan assembly speaker, C P Joshi would head the committee to examine the issue of financial autonomy of the legislature secretariats.

 These three Committees will submit their reports along with recommendations on these important topics during the conference. On the sidelines of the Presiding Officers’ Conference on Tuesday, the Secretaries of various legislatures held discussions.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary General of Lok Sabha, Snehlata Shrivastava said that due to the initiatives taken by the Lok Sabha Speaker, two sessions of the 17th Lok Sabha had been very productive in terms of opportunities provided to new members to raise matters in the House and also in terms of number of legislations passed by the Lok Sabha. Giving her comments on the subjects  'Need to Review the Procedure for Expunction in the Legislatures' and 'Legislature Opening New Windows for Reaching the Masses',  Shrivastava said that there is an urgent need to review the process of expunction in light of new digital and information and communication technologies.

Participating in the discussion, Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, Desh Deepak Verma said that Legislatures must review their role in order to effectively function as a strong bridge between the people and the Government. Earlier on the day, the Secretary, Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha, Jagdish Chandra welcomed the delegates.