Om Birla arrives in Leh for 'Parliamentary Outreach Program', to visit Pangong Lake

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla arrived in Leh, Ladakh on Thursday. He will be inaugurating the Parliamentary Outreach Programme for the Empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions in the Union Territory on August 27. An official statement issued by the Lok Sabha office said that Birla would also visit Pangong Lake and Nubra Valley to meet Panchayat representatives.

The chairperson of Parliamentary Committees, members of Parliament, chairmen of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh and Kargil, and other eminent dignitaries will grace the occasion. Delegates who signed up for this event have already started arriving in Ladakh for the programme. 

Press release from Lok Sabha

The press release from the Lok Sabha said in a statement that the 'Parliamentary Outreach Programme for the Empowerment of Panchayati Raj institutions in Leh, Ladakh was a unique initiative of the Lok Sabha speaker, Om Birla. "A first of its kind program. It is intended to strengthen the institutions of governance and planning at the grass-root level," the statement read. Om Birla while speaking to ANI about the programme said, "Development will be done as per the geological requirements of Ladakh. This effort would also be taken to make the local population 'Atma Nirbhar'. Tourism will be bolstered to generate employment opportunities for locals." Since the Union territory (UT) of Ladakh depends mostly on Tourism, Om thought that this idea would further open up new job opportunities for the UT and help get more people employed. This initiative would further boost PM Modi's 'Atma Nirbhar' plan.

A press release from the office of the speaker said that other important ministers would also mark this programme along with Om Birla. The list included the following:

• Union Minister of Heavy Industries, Dr, Mahendra Nath Pandey
• Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandviya,
• Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Ladakh Radha Krishna Mathur
• Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Ray
• Mos Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) Dr Munjapara Mahendrabhai

3rd Outreach Programme of its kind

The theme of the third edition of this programme taking place in Leh Ladakh is termed as "Parliamentary Outreach Program for the Empowerment of the Panchayati Raj Institutions". The organising body informed that 195 representatives from Panchayati Raj institutions will be attending the programme. The ideas that will be discussed in this programme will revolve around the following:

• Creating mass awareness/participation;
• Creation of a sense of ownership of the assets that have been built;
• Fuelling the ambition of grass-root political leaders for democratic values;

Previous Outreach programmes

The first Outreach Programme was organised at Dehradun, Uttarakhand on January 8. The event recorded the physical attendance of 445 Panchayat representatives physically and approximately, and 40,000 others had joined it through a video conference. The second Outreach Programme was organised at Shillong on 26 February for the state of Meghalaya and the other North Eastern states. That particular event was physically attended by 115 members of the local bodies.