Good governance enhances trust of people in the administration, he said

Good governance needs ‘good legislatures’ to ensure the accountability of the executive to the people, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday.

He argued that there was a need for ‘good legislators’ who gave their best to do justice to the trust reposed in them by the people.

In this context, he referred to various instruments in Parliament such as Question Hour, Short Duration Discussions, debates on Bills and said that elected representatives can question the government about implementation of policies, execution of various welfare and development projects.

He was speaking through a video message to pay tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his 97th birth anniversary which is marked as Good Governance Day.

Observing that good governance enhances trust of people in the administration and catalyses economic growth, Vice President Naidu expressed concern that there was a ‘governance deficit’ in delivery of services at the level of state governments and local bodies.

He stressed that such a deficit increases time and cost overruns, jeopardises the goal of socio-economic advancement and alienates people from participatory governance. This needs to be addressed on priority, he urged.

Paying tributes to former Prime Minister Vajpayee, the Vice President described him as "One of the tallest Indian leaders ever and one of the most glittering stars of our political firmament, the charismatic former Prime Minister was an outstanding parliamentarian, able administrator, poet, writer, orator par excellence and above all, a great human being".

Vice President Naidu recalled how "Atal Ji strongly believed in placing people at the centre of the development agenda and demonstrated how democracy can be strengthened through good governance in a people-centric mode".