Meira Kumar, the country's first woman Lok Sabha Speaker, on Thursday completed two years in office.
The period saw her putting up herculean efforts to ensure order in the House, which saw chaos on many occasions with the winter session last year getting washed out over the Opposition demand of setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to go into 2G spectrum allocation scam.
A five-time member of the Lok Sabha, Ms. Kumar (66), was elected unopposed as Speaker in June 2009.
During her tenure so far, the House has witnessed uproarious scenes for several weeks as the government and the Opposition locked horns on various issues resulting in the stalling of parliamentary proceedings. A calm and cool Speaker forever trying to lower the temperature in the House, Ms. Kumar has tried working out a solution to the stalemate over JPC, by initiating a dialogue.
A function was held in the Parliament Library Building to mark Ms. Kumar's two years in office. It was attended by several MPs, officers and staff of the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha T.K. Viswanathan highlighted the contributions made by the Speaker in strengthening parliamentary democracy and in promoting parliamentary diplomacy.
The Speaker released the first in-house Hindi magazine of the Lok Sabha Secretariat Sansadiya Manjusha and a book, Honouring National Leaders-Statues and Portraits in Parliament Complex.
