SHILLONG, Feb 24: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will address members of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly here on the first day of his two-day visit to the state on Thursday.
On his arrival in the Assembly premises, Birla will inspect the Guard of Honour. Later, he will visit the construction site of the new building of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.
On Friday, the Lok Sabha Speaker will inaugurate the outreach and familiarisation programme for the local bodies of Meghalaya and the other Northeastern states in Shillong.
Besides Birla, the programme will be attended by Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Rameshwar Teli, Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Speaker, Metbah Lyngdoh and District Council Affairs Minister, Lahkmen Rymbui.
Several parliamentarian and other dignitaries will also grace the function.
A brainchild of the Lok Sabha Speaker, the outreach & familiarisation programme for Panchayati Raj institutions of the country,) is being organised by the Parliamentary Research & Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE), Lok Sabha Secretariat, with a focus on enhancing participatory democracy through greater awareness of the procedures and processes followed by democratic institutions right from the grassroots to the apex level.
Members of the three Autonomous District Councils of Meghalaya and other states in the North East will also be attending the programme.
In addition, 80 representatives head from the local self-government bodies of other Northeastern states consisting of 25 Zila Parishad chairmen from Arunachal Pradesh, 26 Zila Parishad chairmen from Assam, 6 Zila Parishad Chairmen from Manipur, 6 MDCs from Mizoram, 5 nominated heads of Village Councils from Nagaland, 4 Zila Parishad Chairmen from Sikkim and 8 Zila Parishad Chairmen from Tripura will also attend the programme. Apart from this, remaining panchayat representatives from all the Northeastern states will be connected to the programme online via a web link.
The first outreach programme was organised in Dehradun on January 8, 2021. Shillong is hosting the second programme.