Chennai, Sept 9:
Information and Publicity Minister Rajmohan on Tuesday urged the Tamil Nadu Assembly to introduce a sign-language interpretation window in its live telecast from the next session to enable people with hearing impairment to follow legislative proceedings.
Responding to the issue in the Assembly, Speaker JCD Prabhakar assured the House that the proposal would be examined. Rajmohan said several people with hearing impairment had watched the proceedings and some had been able to follow them when sign-language interpretation was provided on television channels.
The Minister said the sign-language interpreter should remain visible on the screen during the live telecast, including when Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay was addressing the House.
He said the initiative would make the Assembly’s proceedings more inclusive and enable a larger section of the public to follow debates and decisions taken in the House.
Rajmohan also pointed out that many students and children had visited the Assembly during the session, indicating growing public interest in legislative proceedings.
Meanwhile, CPM member T Latha urged the government to increase the number of sitting days of the Assembly to 100 days a year. She said more sitting days would give legislators greater opportunities to raise issues concerning people in their constituencies.
She also welcomed the live telecast of Assembly proceedings and raised concerns over difficulties faced by members of the public visiting the Secretariat to submit petitions.
Rajmohan said people could submit petitions whenever they wished and that police personnel would not prevent them from doing so. However, he said large crowds arriving simultaneously could cause congestion because of limited space and added that the issue would be addressed.
The Minister said the proceedings had been telecast live from the first day to the last day of the session for the first time in the Assembly’s history. He also praised Speaker Prabhakar for facilitating the live telecast.