Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Tuesday released the digitised version of all documents pertaining to the Kerala Legislative Assembly since 1957 for being made available to the public on the official website of the Assembly.
He released it while inaugurating the valedictory of the Diamond Jubilee of Kerala Legislative Secretariat at a function here. The Chief Minister also formally announced the setting up of a Centre for Parliamentary Studies and Training (CPST) under the Legislative Secretariat, to equip the legislators and also the employees of the Legislative Secretariat in the task of handling efficiently their duties as law makers and supporting staff respectively.
Mr. Chandy said Kerala Legislative Assembly had set a model for the State Legislatures in the country, not only in the matter of enacting trailblazing laws, but also in reflecting, without distortions, the aspirations and needs of the people. “The strength of democracy is in people’s faith and confidence that the system represented the common man…It should not distance itself from the people,” he said.
Speaker G. Karthikeyan said the process of digitising the documents pertaining to the proceedings of Travancore Legislative Council, Travancore Sree Moolam Popular Assembly, Sree Moolam Assembly, Sree Chitra Council, Travancore Constituent Assembly, Cochin Legislative Council and Thiru-Kochi Legislative Assembly, dating from 1888 to 1956, would also be completed by March, 2012. Over 5 lakh pages of legislative documents would be thus made available on the website of the Assembly, he said.
He said the services of the CPST inaugurated by the Chief Minister would be available to anyone who desired to study the legislative history of this part of the country.
Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan presided over the function. P.D. Rajan, Secretary, Kerala Legislative Assembly, presented a report. Ministers K.M. Mani, P.K. Kunhalikutty and Shibu Baby John; Deputy Speaker N. Sakthan; Government Chief Whip P.C. George and MLAs Mathew T. Thomas, C. Divakaran, Therambil Ramakrishnan and A.A. Azeez offered felicitations.