JORHAT, April 23 - Addressing a press conference at Jorhat Press Club today Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly Hitendra Nath Goswami said he is taking up initiatives to introduce a new provision namely �members� hour� to provide additional period for the newly elected MLAs to speak about vital issues of their respective constituencies in details.
�I am going to organise all-party meeting soon for this purpose. Members� hour will provide additional period of time to the newly elected members of legislative Assembly in the sessions to speak about the vital issues of their constituencies,� said Speaker Goswami.
As many newly elected MLAs did not avail additional time to bring their local issues in details during earlier sessions the Speaker felt the need of an additional provision for those members to bring out the problems of the citizens of their respective constituencies adequately. If the issues of public importance were highlighted properly by the MLAs in the Assembly the departments concerned will take up necessary measures to solve those problems without any delay.
Goswami, who is also the MLA of Jorhat Assembly constituency, highlighted many ongoing development activities in different parts of his constituency, which witnessed rampant corruption in several government projects in last 10 years of Congress rule.
As the government gave a financial approval of Rs 2000 crore recently for the development of unban infrastructure of Jorhat the MLA said the amount would be spent properly for the larger benefits of the public.
Seventy eight major roads of 30 km distance at various urban localities have been pointed out to be developed and maintained initially. Another project of widening the embankment of Bhogdoi river from Pujadubi Ghat to AT Road and the beatification of the riverside area with children-park, sculptures have been prepared, said Goswami.
Along with these development initiatives several new development projects have been prepared for the infrastructural development and preservation of heritage buildings and historical ponds like Bongal Pukhuri, Boliagohain Pukhur and many others in Jorhat. �With an aim to provide drinking water in the city project report of a new drinking water supply scheme for urban areas is also being prepared which will be submitted before the Urban Development Department soon. The estimated cost of this new scheme is stated to be around Rs 81.27 crore,� Goswami said.
He also said that initiatives were taken up to provide piped cooking gas connections for the residents of around 15 municipal wards in the urban areas. It is to be mentioned that out of 19 municipal wards of Jorhat, 15 municipal wards have proper infrastructure to provide piped cooking gas to around 15,500 families. Only eight per cent of the total households of urban Jorhat could avail the piped cooking gas even after the introduction of the system in the city several years ago.
