At present, the proceedings of the Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly are made known to the public only by way of edited clippings released by certain Tamil channels.  

The public’s right to know what business transpires in the Assembly is severely restricted by the whims of the private channel that can choose what clipping to show, on what occasion and in what edited form. This state of affairs has led to the public being fed on partisan views, and not being given a complete picture. Further, several very important matters of business like the deliberations on the Finance Bill, Appropriation Bill and  Demand for grants are not telecast for public viewing. The citizen must be shown how his elected representatives represents him in the assembly. 

Thus the Citizens Right to Know exactly and fully what happens in his Legislative Assembly is a very valuable right.

It is in recognition of this right that Parliament arranged for the live telecast of the proceedings of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha through dedicated TV channels for each House. Precedents have also been set by other states. Andhra Pradesh Assembly proceedings are webcast live during every Assembly session. Karnataka also allows uninterrupted feed to all private channels, and is examining the need for an exclusive channel for this purpose. Kerala State has operationalised a live webcast from the CM’s office and has set up infrastructure to webcast/telecast live proceedings from the Assembly, at the earliest. Several other states, including Gujarat and Bihar are taking steps to operationalise a live telecast of all Assembly sessions.

In 1996 the Shri. P.A.Sangma committee on telecasting of proceedings of legislatures had recommended  that infrastructure be set up to facilitate live telecast of State Assembly proceedings. At several conferences of the presiding officers of legislatures it has been undertaken to move towards setting up of such live telecast.

The Lok Satta Party requests you to kindly acknowledge this valuable right of the public and ensure that live telecast of Assembly proceedings is begun at the earliest, especially in view of the fact that the State Budget, Finance Bill, Appropriation Bills and Demand for grants are expected in this month.

Since Tamilnadu Government is already giving live telecast of Governor’s Address and Finance minister’s budget presentation in Assembly, we believe that technical issues will not be a constraint for making Assembly proceedings Live. Hope you will consider this genuine right of citizens in Tamilnadu and will implement it for the upcoming budget session, expected in this month.

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