Sumitra Mahajan second woman Speaker of Lok Sabha
Congress leader Meira Kumar was the first to occupy the Speaker’s post
New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan, one of the party’s most experienced parliamentarians, is sworn-in as the Lok Sabha Speaker.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval to the Presidential address to the joint sitting of Parliament that will be delivered June 9. The Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the draft of President Pranab Mukherjee’s speech, that will outline the government’s key priorities.
Transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari was on Wednesday given additional charge of rural development, panchayati raj and drinking water and sanitation, the portfolios held by Gopinath Munde, who died in a car crash in the city on Tuesday.
Later on Wednesday, in a first of its kind, the Prime Minister also held a separate meeting with the secretaries of all Central ministries and departments. Mr Modi interacted directly with the country’s top bureaucrats with no ministers present.
Ms Mahajan, 71, eight-time MP from Indore, has become the the second woman to occupy the Speaker’s post, after Congress leader Meira Kumar, who was Speaker of the 15th Lok Sabha.