Chennai: For the first time in its history, the Tamilnadu Assembly proceedings were telecast live today.
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.
Tamilnadu, thus joined other States in telecasting live the Assembly proceedings. The Question Hour lasted one 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 Stalin replied to it. Karunanidhi wanted to know whether the Chennai Metro Rail project would be extended from Chennai Airport in Meenambakkam to Vandalur.
Replying to it, Stalin said steps would be taken in this regard and a Detailed Project Report to extend the services to Kilambakkam near 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, said 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 cases 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 telacast, live inputs were given to television channels. A team of officials from the Tamilnadu 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.