Lucknow, Jan. 22 -- The 86th All India Presiding Officers Conference that concluded here on Wednesday gave a call "to create a consensus among all political parties" to increase the number of sittings of state legislative bodies to a minimum of 30 in a year to constructively utilise the time and resources for legislative business, strengthen parliamentary functioning and democratic accountability.

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, who was speaking to the media after the conclusion of the conference, said all the states have agreed with the resolution to make efforts to have at least 30 sittings in a year. This issue was reflected in one of the six resolutions adopted at the conference. A resolution to hold 60 sittings was adopted earlier too, ...