Mumbai, June 24 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday said the national conference of Estimates Committees of Parliament, State Legislatures and Union Territories held here has arrived at a consensus to work together by sharing best practices and involving stakeholders and experts before preparing reports and their submission to Parliament and Legislatures.

He told reporters here that it was also unanimously decided to use Artificial Intelligence and data analytics in the functioning of the parliamentary and legislative committees and thereby make suggestions for bringing more transparency and accountability in administration and judicious use of government funds, which will ultimately benefit the common man.

The LS Speaker said that the two-day national conference was attended by 109 members, the chairmen of Estimates Committees of states and UTs, and 22 MPs, including the Lok Sabha Estimates Committee chairman Sanjay Jaiswal.

“The participants made a strong case for engaging stakeholders, especially experts, during discussions and preparation of reports. It was also agreed that the common man can know about what happened to the various representations made to the committees,” he added.

He referred to the emerging challenges in governance, including increased public expenditure, growing complexity of schemes, and rapid technological change. He pointed out that the Estimates Committee has, over the years, consistently contributed to budgetary reforms aimed at improving transparency and aligning expenditures with national development goals.

Against this backdrop, the LS Speaker highlighted that the Committee has made path-breaking contributions in several key areas, including reorganisation of the Secretariat, operational capacity and capacity of railways, public sector undertakings, rejuvenation of the Ganga River, among others. He said the governments have accepted 90 to 95 per cent recommendations of the Committee.

To a question over how fair it is to share with the media what transpired in the meetings of parliamentary committees, the LS Speaker said, “The deliberations should not be discussed outside the committees.”

He said that during the last year, the Lok Sabha has taken a slew of decisions to make proceedings paperless and digitised.

“In Lok Sabha, with the use of AI now the translation in 22 official languages of Parliament will be available. The E Parliament has been introduced. Since 1854 to date, all debates have been digitised on one platform, which everyone can read. The members and citizens can watch various debates on Digital Sansad and also at the Video Library. The Parliament library has also been digitised,” he mentioned.

–IANS

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