Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K. Sangma on Wednesday said ‘one country one election’ is good for the nation as it saves expenditure, but called for wider consultations and then take a collective decision.
Sangma, who is the national president of the National People’s Party (NPP), attended the meeting of the heads of all political parties chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Apart from the agenda ‘one country, one election,’ the other agendas include improving the productivity of Parliament and Members of Parliament, 75th year of India’s Independence, 150th year birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and how to improve aspirational districts which have been selected in the country.
Sangma said, “One election is good for the nation as it saves expenditures and at the same time it improves the overall efficiency of elections. It is a positive thing but with all positive aspects, there are challenges.”
Suggesting that consultations must be done with all stakeholders to ensure that all ideas must be taken in, Sangma said that the Prime Minister also reflected the same idea that consultations would take place at different levels and only after consultations are done, then a decision will be made on how this can be taken forward.
“The Prime Minister said this is just the beginning, and it is not a government agenda, but an agenda for the nation which should be taken on a positive manner,” he said.
On Parliament’s productivity, Sangma said that productivity include time productivity and MPs productivity as an individual.
“Time productivity is important for parties to send a message and try to inculcate the culture of participation in debates rather than creating noise. Productivity can be judged by how he or she participates in Parliament and that culture has to come in,” Conrad Sangma said.
“MPs can be also productive if they are given more man power, officers,” he said while suggesting that each MP should be given an office, along with enough staff so that work can be done.
The Meghalaya chief minister also cited healthy debates in the Meghalaya Assembly and the House did have a kind of noisy situation that disrupted proceedings of the state Assembly.
“Though we have arguments inside the House on certain issues, but they were all very productive as we do not stall the proceedings of the House. From that angle, Meghalaya can be an example to the rest of the country in one way,” he added.