Shimla, June 20 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Friday extended a formal invitation to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu to grace the inaugural ceremony of the annual conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, India region Zone II, being held from June 30 and July 1 in Dharamsala, the state’s winter capital in Kangra district.

Speaker Pathania informed that the conference will see participation from delegates representing Zone II, which includes Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Among the attendees will be the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Speakers and Deputy Speakers of state Legislative Assemblies, Leaders of the Opposition, Chief Whips, and MLAs from member states.

In addition, Speakers from Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana have been invited as special guests.

Speaker Pathania said that the conference aims to promote meaningful dialogue on legislative procedures, democratic governance, and regional cooperation.

He emphasised that the platform will facilitate the exchange of best practices and play a vital role in strengthening parliamentary institutions across the country.

Himachal Pradesh was the first state to introduce paperless e-working in the Shimla and Dharamsala assemblies in 2014 with the commissioning of the Rs 8.12 crore e-Vidhan Sabha project of the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Then Speaker B.B.L. Butail was the brain behind the commissioning and success of the e-Assembly that helped save approximately Rs 15 crore annually.

The Speaker’s proposal had followed his concern over the immense drain of the exchequer for the maintenance and upkeep of the palatial second Assembly building in Dharamsala, located 250 km from the state capital.

In what is widely regarded as a political rather than legislative exercise, the week-long Winter Session of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly is held in Dharamsala town since 2005.

The first Winter Session outside Shimla was held in that year in the town’s Government Degree College. It was said to be an attempt by the then Congress government to woo the electorate of the lower hills.

The Congress government also started the construction of the massive Assembly building in Tapovan on the outskirts of Dharamsala, where the Winter Sessions have subsequently been held.

The complex is located on a 1.6 acre plot and cost Rs 7-8 crore to build.

With the BJP taking the reins of the state government in 2007, it became a political compulsion for it to stick to the move. After that, successive Congress and BJP governments came to power in the state and they continued with the practice of holding one session in Dharamsala.

–IANS

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