Om Birla pays floral tribute to former Speaker PA Sangma on his birth anniversary

New Delhi [India], September 1 (ANI): Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla paid floral tributes to former Speaker of Lok Sabha PA Sangma on the occasion of his birth anniversary at the central hall of Parliament House in Delhi on Sunday.
Harivansh Narayan Singh, Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Members of Parliament and other dignitaries also paid floral tributes to the former speaker.
Sangma served as the 11th Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998. On 23 May 1996, he was unanimously elected the Speaker of the Eleventh Lok Sabha winning support across all political parties.
Born on 1 September 1947 in village Chapahati in the West Garo Hills District of Meghalaya, he was a man of many parts, having been, in the course of his career, a lecturer, a lawyer and a journalist before he joined politics.
He also served as the 4th Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990.
According to the Lok Sabha Secretariat, as the Speaker, Sangma ensured that the rules were observed by the members even in the midst of stormy debates. Parliamentary democracy, he observed, meant free debate, objective deliberations, and healthy criticism, and it was for the Speaker to ensure that these objectives were achieved.
Besides nine terms in Lok Sabha, Sangma also served in the Union Cabinet in important ministries like Home Affairs, Commerce, Industry, Labour, Information and Broadcasting, and Coal. Sangma passed away due to cardiac arrest on March 4, 2016. (ANI)