Mla Ratings 2017
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A comprehensive & objective rating of the Elected Representatives’ performance DELHI MLA RATINGS 2017 DELHI MLAs REPORT CARD i TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Pg. No. Praja is a non-partisan organisation working towards enabling accountable governance since 1999. Praja empowers citizens to participate in governance by providing knowledge and The Team 2 perspective so that they can become politically active and involved beyond the ballot box. It undertakes extensive Why was a Report Card needed and what does it contain? 3 research and highlights civic issues to build the awareness of, and mobilize action by the government and elected Foreword 4 representatives. Acknowledgements 6 THE PROBLEM PRAJA's RESPONSE Assessing the performance of the MLAs objectively 7 Praja believes that uninformed and Praja conducts data driven disengaged elected representatives research and provides information Profiles and Performance of MLAs 8 and administration, rather than on civic issues to citizens, media, existing systems or policies, are and government administration and How to read the Ranking Page 12 responsible for the lack of good works with elected representatives governance. Additionally, there is a to identify and address inefficiencies Key Analysis 44 paucity of tools to facilitate effective in their work processes, bridge the interaction between citizens and information gaps, and aid them in The Methodology 53 the local government. taking corrective measures. (1) The Matrix – Scale of Ranking 53 HOW DID IT EVOLVE? (2) Parameters for Past Records as per Affidavit 56 1999 2003 2005 2008 2014 (3) Parameters for Present Performance in the State Legislature 57 Praja, along with the Teamed up with BMC Published Mumbai Initiated Praja Conducted Brihan Mumbai Municipal and built its citizen's Citizen's Handbook to Dialogue; launched workshops Corporation (BMC), grievance redressal demystify governance CityScan, an online with elected (4) Parameters for People’s Perception as per Opinion Poll 61 created Mumbai's first mechanism, The in Mumbai; About collation of extensive representatives, Citizen Charter Online Complaint and 2 lakh copies data on civic and educating them on Management System distributed security Issues In policies and roles; (5) Parameters for Negative Marking 67 (OCMS), and conducted Mumbai; Published started the Delhi complaint audits in the Councilor handbook; Chapter to replicate ensuing years and annual report the model developed cards on MLAs, and In Mumbai Councilors DELHI MLAs REPORT CARD DELHI MLAs REPORT CARD 1 WHY was A REPOrt CARD NEEDED AND THE TEAM what DOES IT COntain? Board of Trustees Dr. Suma Chitnis The People of India have had Elected Representatives representing them in Social Scientist & former Vice Chancellor, various bodies from the parliament to the panchayat for the last 60 years. Nitai Mehta SNDT University Managing Trustee, Praja Foundation; These representatives have deliberated, debated, questioned, proposed Vinay Sanghi Entrepreneur new laws, passed new laws and governed the nation at all levels using the Entrepreneur Sumangali Gada mechanisms given to them by the Constitution of India. The 1950 constitution Founder Trustee, Praja Foundation; Market Research Agency which we gave to ourselves laid out the way in which we would govern Entrepreneur Hansa Research ourselves. In the last three decades we have seen a steady decline in the Anuj Bhagwati Ashok Das quality of governance due to various reasons, prime amongst them being Trustee, Praja Foundation; Entrepreneur Managing Director, Hansa Research commercialisation of politics and criminalisation of politics, this has created a Iris Madeira Anjan Ghosh huge governance deficit in our country. Trustee, Praja Foundation; Education Senior Vice President, Hansa Research Consultant, Board of Advisor’s Centre for The Electorate has remained a silent witness for most part of this and And the rest of the Hansa team including Civil Society are feeling let down and frustrated by the Government and the elected Tristan Braganza, Nishant Thakkar, Virat Jamal Mecklai Parekh, Tarun Shroff, Joy Chakraborty, representatives. Trustee, Praja Foundation; Foreign Harish Singh, Vinod Kumar, Pradeep Exchange Consultant The time when the citizen has a ‘real’ say, is during elections which happens Kumar and Mukund Kumar once in five years. The elections are the only time when the elected Vivek Asrani Praja Team representatives are appraised for their performance in the corresponding term Trustee, Praja Foundation; Entrepreneur Milind Mhaske Project Director by the electorate. Advisors to Praja Priyanka Sharma Sr. Programme Manager Looking at the growing problems of Governance and the ever increasing Dr. C. R. Sridhar Balwant Kirar Asst. Programme Manager needs of the citizens there is a need of a continuous dialogue and appraisal Market Research Professional Anjali Srivastava Asst. Programme of the working of the elected representatives. D. M. Sukhtankar Manager It is this need of continuous dialogue and appraisal that made Praja develop former Municipal Commissioner, Mumbai and former Chief Secretary, Government And rest of the Praja Team including this Report Card. Anubhooti, Akshay Paonaskar, of Maharashtra Performance Appraisal of Elected Representatives has become the need of Dakshata Bhosale, Eknath Pawar, Dhruv Mundra the hour. Ganesh Jadhav, Ganesh Phulsundar, Entrepreneur Geetanjali Jodha, Himanshi, Himani This appraisal has been done keeping in mind the constitutional role Juju Basu Pant, Mahesh Bhaskar, Nilam Mirashi, Advertising Professional and responsibility of the elected representatives and the opinion of their Neerad Pandharipande, Nurul Hoda, electorate. We firmly believe in receiving every feedback to improve this K. M. S. (Titoo) Ahluwalia Neha Kori, Puneet Kaur, Pooja Verma, appraisal system. Former Chairman & CEO A.C. Nielsen Pragati Watve, Pradeep Shinde, ORG- MARG Rakesh Gaikwad, Rakesh Pote, Rashmi We believe this Report Card which we will be publishing every year will give Mustafa Doctor Kapoor, Riddhi Vartak, Ruchita Bait, to the citizens, elected representatives, political parties and the government Advocate Rupesh Kumar, Shivali Bagayatkar, valuable feedback on the functioning of the elected representatives. We also Rajan Mehra Swapneel Thakur, Vipul Gharat and hope that it will set standards and bench marks of the performance of the Entrepreneur Vibesh Kakapoil. elected representatives not only in Delhi but across the country. 2 DELHI MLAs REPORT CARD DELHI MLAs REPORT CARD 3 FOREWORD Delhi is the only one out of the four megacities of India to have a long history • As many as 7 MLAs did not raise even a single issue in the assembly in preceding the British era. The city has been destroyed and rebuilt several 2017. times, and each time it has emerged a different entity. Even in the present day, it is undergoing major changes. Whether it will emerge out of this churn as a • 31% MLAs (18 out of 59) raised 5 issues or less in 2017. more efficient and prosperous metropolis depends on the will of its elected • While the percentage with respect to ‘issues raised’ reduced from 49.88% representatives. in 2016 to 48.26% in 2017, the percentage with respect to ‘quality of On account of being the capital city, Delhi assumes special importance in the issues raised’ reduced from 39.04% to 35.76% in the same period. When national consciousness. Thus, the work done by its members of legislative we speak of quality of issues raised, we assess the extent to which MLAs assembly (MLAs) regularly finds space in the national headlines, much more raise issues which directly pertain to their own area of responsibility. so than other major cities. The city’s diverse demographics, muddled power Thus, it is clear that Delhi’s MLA need to be much more proactive in voicing structures and constant presence in the national spotlight mean that it can be people’s concerns in the legislative assembly. They also need to have their a political representative’s dream as well as nightmare. ear to the ground and understand what the priorities of the people are. For Through our MLA report card, we have sought to provide an objective analysis instance, even though 19,152 citizen complaints were filed on ‘drainage of the complex task that these elected representatives face. Our attempt is to chokes, blockages and cleaning and overflowing manholes’ in 2016, MLAs shed light on various aspects of their performance. raised only 2 issues on it in the same year. If MLAs are not performing their primary function of giving a voice to people’s concerns in the legislative In this year’s report card, possibly the most worrying finding is the huge assembly, then it is a cause for worry. increase in the number of people’s representatives with criminal records. In February 2015, 8 MLAs had FIRs (under sections with 2 or more years' of It is important to note that 67 out the 70 MLAs of Delhi are from the Aam imprisonment) registered against them, as per their affidavits. However, as on Aadmi Party (AAP). The AAP, a relatively new entrant to politics, had been 31st December, 2016, FIRs had been registered against as many as 26 MLAs. voted to power with an overwhelming mandate as it promised transparent Also, by the end of 2016, one-third of MLAs (20 out of 59) had chargesheets and accountable governance. If it is to follow up on its promise of governing filed against them, indicating that the law enforcement authorities found prima on principles of swaraj, its MLAs must use the legislative forum to hold the facie evidence of their involvement in the crime. Elected representatives government accountable. However, as things stand as of now, its performance facing accusations of breaking the law is particularly unfortunate, as they on this front is actually deteriorating instead of improving. are expected to be custodians of the Constitution and exemplars of good For this situation to improve, an objective and fact-based assessment of the conduct. This statistic is merely one part of the extensive data collected by us performance of these elected representatives is needed.