New Delhi
Lok Sabha Speaker Mrs. Sumitra Mahajan; Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs & Statistics and Programme Implementation Vijay Goel; Members of Parliament and former Members of Parliament paid floral tributes at the portrait of the former Speaker of Lok Sabha, Bali Ram Bhagat in the Central Hall of Parliament House on his Birth Anniversary today.
A booklet containing the profile of Bali Ram Bhagat, brought out in Hindi and English by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, was presented to the dignitaries.
A veteran freedom fighter with rich parliamentary experience and deep knowledge of parliamentary practices and procedures, Shri Bali Ram Bhagat was elected as the Speaker of the Fifth Lok Sabha on 5 January 1976. He was a Member of the Provisional Parliament and First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Lok Sabhas. As a Union Minister, he held important portfolios, including Finance, Planning, Defence, External Affairs, Foreign Trade and Supply, Steel and Heavy Engineering. He functioned as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh from February 1993 for four months and Governor of Rajasthan from 30 June 1993 till 1 May 1998.