Chennai, Jan 6 (UNI) For the first time in its history, the Tamil Nadu
Assembly proceedings were telecast live on Thursday.
As promised by the DMK, which returned to power in May last after
a gap of ten years, to begin with, the Question Hour proceedings
were telecast live, fulfilling one of the long pending demands of various
political parties.
Tamil Nadu, thus joined other states in telecasting live the Assembly
proceedings.
The Question Hour lasted about an hour.
Chief Minister M K Stalin and Ministers replied to the questions raised by
the members of the Treasury Benches, and the Opposition AIADMK and
their alliance partners.
DMK Pallavaram MLA A Karunanidhi raised the first question and Mr Stalin
replied to it.
Mr Karunanidhi wanted to know whether the Chennai Metro Rail project
would be extended from Chennai Airport in Meenambakkam to Vandalur.
Replying to it, Mr Stalin said steps would be taken in this regard and a
Detailed Project Report to extend the services to Vandalur was under
the consideration of the government.
With the live telecast of the proceedings, the long-standing demand has
become a reality today
Live telecast of the Assembly proceedings, holding Assembly session for
100 days a year and reviving the now-defunct Legislative Council are the
three key promises made by the DMK in its election manifesto.
The Assembly session was being held in the spacious Kalaivanar Arangam
for the last one year in view of the COVID pandemic and to maintain social
distancing norms among the members.
During the last session, Mr Stalin promised that the House proceedings would
be telecast live once the Assembly session was shifted back to the traditional
Assembly Chamber in the Fort St George.
In line with his announcement, the present session was earlier convened at
Fort.St.George as the daily COVID case declined. Now with the emergence
of the Omicron variant and significant increase in the cases during the last
two weeks, the Session was shifted to Kalaivanar Arangam from where the
proceedings were telecast live for the first time.
As part of the live telecast, live inputs were given to television channels.
A team of officials from the Tamil Nadu Films Division recently visited the
Parliament House and the Assembly halls of Delhi, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala,
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha to get first-hand experience.
The live telecast of the proceedings was expected to bring in a paradigm shift
in the quality of debates in the House as it would impose a big responsibility on
the conduct of the members and what they speak.
UNI GV 1049