Assessment of the performance of poll-bound 5 Assemblies

By TCN Staff Reporter,

Guwahati: The National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have released an analysis of the performance of MLAs and Legislative Assemblies in four states and one Union Territory that are going to poll in a few weeks from now. Individually these Assemblies sat for less days in last five years compared to the Lok Sabha.

NEW and ADR released their assessment report on March 24, 2011. According to the assessment, Kerala Legislative Assembly sat for the largest number of days (240 days in last 5 years) and the lowest number of sittings is that of the Puducherry Assembly which sat only for a total of 123 days in last 5 years. The average number of days that these Assemblies sat is way below the Lok Sabha sittings. It is also found that Tamil Nadu Assembly passed the largest number of bills (225), the lowest numbers of bills were passed by Puducherry(42).

Releasing the individual details of MLAs performance (Except West Bengal), National Election Watch demanded political parties to include the parameters for functioning of Legislatures in their Election Manifestoes. The group also demanded the parties to give tickets to candidates suitable for legislative work.

The information about the performance of the MLAs was accessed through RTI application which was filed in December 2010 and sought information pertaining to the performance of the MLAs and the Legislative Assemblies. The information was requested on seven points: 1. Attendance of the MLAs in the Assembly, 2. Number of Questions asked by the MLA, 3. Total number of days the Assembly was in session, 4. Total number of days it was adjourned 5. The average attendance in the sessions 6. Total number of bills passed and 7. Time spent in discussing bills/disruptions.

Assemblies Vs Lok Sabha

From the responses received, the following information has been generated and the performance of Legislative Assemblies was compared with Lok Sabha. It was found that the legislative assemblies have been meeting for a very short time despite legislative work being the main task of the MLAs. The best performance in terms of number of sittings is that of Kerala which has met for 240 days in the last five years. This amounts to an average of only 48 days per year. Kerala is followed by West Bengal which sat for 219 days in five years (average of 44 days a year) and Tamil Nadu (214 days in five years with an average of 43 days a year). This compares very poorly with Lok Sabha which in itself sits for small number of days. The current Lok Sabha in last 1.5 years has sat for 135 days which averages to about 90 days in a year. All states have sat way below the number of days Lok Sabha has sat (most has sat for less than 50% of the days).

Perks for legislators, no talk about their performance

NEW also pointed out that whereas most legislatures are now passing recommendations for increase in MLAs salaries and perks, there is virtually no discussion on the role of MLAs. The parties must include various parameters for functioning of Legislatures in their Election Manifestoes. They must also ensure that once they come to power they will make it easy for people to access information pertaining to performance of MLAs and State Legislative Assemblies by their Secretariats on their respective websites.

Performance of MLAs in Assam

(Note: Minister, Chief Minister, Speaker, Leader of Opposition, etc are exempted from signing the attendance register. The details in the excel sheet are based on the data provided by the legislature in response to the RTI having the questions given above.)

MLA	Presence (days)	Bills tabled by MLA
Abdul aziz	108	NIL
Abdul Hai Nagori	114	NIL
Abdul Khaleque	115	NIL
Abdur Rashid Mandal	106	NIL
Abhijit hazarika	112	NIL
Abu Taher Bapari	113	NIL
Aditya Langthasa	120	NIL
Afzalur Rahman	68	NIL
Ajanta Neog (Minister)	98	NIL
Ajit Singh (Parl. Secretary)	118	NIL
Akan bora (Minister)	119	NIL
Dr. Alaka Sharmsa	114	NIL
Ananta Deka	120	NIL
Anup Phukan	121	NIL
Anwarul Hoque	115	NIL
Maulana Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiya	101	NIL
Badruddin Ajmal	51	NIL
Bharat Chabdra Narah (Minister)	121	NIL
Bhubon Pegu	100	NIL
Bhumidhar Barman(Minister)	116	NIL
Bhupan Kumar Borah	114	NIL
Bibeananda Dolai (Parl. Secretary)	110	NIL
Bidya Sing Engleng (Parl. Secretary)	106	NIL
Binanda Kumar Saikia	123	NIL
Bindo Gowala	103	NIL
Bithika Dev	100	NIL
Bolin Vhetia	103	NIL
Brindaban Goswami	109	NIL
Chandan Brahma(Minister)	87	NIL
Chandi Basumatary	106	NIL
Chandra Mohan Patowary	115	NIL
Deben Daimary	98	NIL
Dildar Rezza (Parl. Secretary)	97	NIL
Dinesh Prasad Gowala	91	NIL
Drupad Borgahain	119	NIL
Dulal Chandra Ghosh	111	NIL
Durga Bhumij	111	NIL
Gautam Bora(Minister)	102	NIL
Gautam Roy (Minister	90	NIL
Ghana Buragohain	100	NIL
Girindra Kumar Baruah	115	NIL
Gobin Chandra Langthasa	67	NIL
Guneswar Das	115	NIL
Gouninga Nath Das	107	NIL
Hafiz Bashir Ahmed	98	NIL
Hazi Salim Uddain Borbhulya	115	NIL
Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma (Minister)	103	NIL
Hiren Kumar Das	116	NIL
Md. Ilias Ali	114	NIL
Jagat Sing Engli	56	NIL
Jiban Tara Ghotowar (Parl. Secretary)	98	NIL

Jiten Gogoi	63	NIL
Jon Jonali Baruah	105	NIL
Joswph Toppo	55	NIL
Jyoti Prasad Das	121	NIL
Kamal Sing Narzary	113	NIL
Kamala Kanta Kalita	109	NIL
Kamali Basumatary	86	NIL
Karendra Basumatary	104	NIL
Kartik Dena Sinha	87	NIL
Keshab Mahanta	118	NIL
Khorsing Engti(Minister)	109	NIL
Kushal Duwari	107	NIL
Kutub Ahmed Mazumadar	107	NIL
Liakat Ali Khan	111	NIL
Maheswar Boro	111	NIL
Majendra Narzary	110	NIL
Dr. Malaya Barman	99	NIL
Maneswar Brahma	78	NIL
Dr. Monoranjan Das	121	NIL
Dr.Monosing Rongpi	115	NIL
Dr. Motiur Rahman Mondal	124	NIL
Member Gogoi	125	NIL
Mission Ranjan Das	111	NIL
Mobarad Ali Pathan	115	NIL
Md. Mohibul Hoque	123	NIL
Dr. Nazrul Islam (Minister)	117	NIL
Nurjamal Sarkar (Minister)	114	NIL
Nurul Hussain	116	NIL
Padma Hazarika	92	NIL
Parameswar Brahma (Parl.Secretary)	106	NIL
Parimal Sukiabaidya	106	NIL
Phani Bhusan Choudhury	116	NIL
Pradip Hazrika	103	NIL
Pradyut Bordoloi (Minister)	102	NIL
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta	107	NIL
Pramila Rani Brahma (Minister)	111	NIL
Pramab Gogoi (Minister)	111	NIL
Pranab Kalita	103	NIL
Pranati Phukan ( Deputy Speaker)	114	NIL
Prasanta Kumar Baruah	90	NIL

Prasanta Phukan	106	NIL
Prithaibi Majhi(Minister)	113	NIL
Prabin Gogoi	94	NIL
Robin Banikya	96	NIL
Rahul Roy	80	NIL
Rajendra Prasad Singh	103	NIL
Pajib Loehan Pegu (Parl. Secretary)	116	NIL
Raju Sahu	111	NIL
Ramendra Narayan Kalita	119	NIL
Ramenshwar Dhanowar	83	NIL
Rameshwar Teli	121	NIL
Rana Goswami	111	NIL
Ranjit Dutta	106	NIL
Rasul Hoque	95	NIL
Rihon Daimary (Minister)	109	NIL
Ripun Bora	104	NIL
Capt. Robin Bordoloi	117	NIL
Rockybyl Hussain (Minister)	121	NIL
Dr. Rumi Nath	106	NIL
Rupjyoti Kumari	77	NIL
Shambhu Singh Mallah	93	NIL
Sanjay Raj Subba	86	NIL
Sarar Borkataky	118	NIL
Sarat Sikia (Parl. Secretary)	117	NIL
Siddeque Ahmed	83	NIL
Sumitra Doley Ptir	90	NIL
Sushil Dutta	113	NIL
Sushila Hazarika	114	NIL
Tanka Bahadur Rai (Speaker)	125	NIL
Tara Prasad Das	119	NIL
Tarun Gogoi (Chief Minister)	81	NIL
Thaneswar Basumatary	112	NIL
Uddhab Barman	116	NIL
Uttara Kalita	103	NIL
Sirajuddin Ajmal	81	NIL
Wazed Ali Choudhury	34	NIL
Bhimananda Tanti	32	NIL

 

Helpline No. to know about candidates

It is to be mentioned that during the elections, the NEW volunteers in Delhi, Chennai, Trivandrum, Kolkata, Guwahati and Puducherry will also be running a 10am to 6pm toll free helpline at 1-800-110-440 where information on candidates and winners can be acquired. The same information can be acquired for constituencies by an SMS service (SMS Myneta [PINCODE] or MYNETA [name of constituency] to 56070) to get information on candidates and elected representatives.