E-Paper
‘14 city MLAs are history-sheeters’
MUMBAI: If the latest report released by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Praja Foundation is any yardstick to measure the performance of the 36 Members of Legislative
MUMBAI: If the latest report released by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Praja Foundation is any yardstick to measure the performance of the 36 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), it does not paint a rosy picture.
Data compiled by the NGO reveals that 14 of the 36 MLAs elected from the city have criminal cases against them. In addition, FIRs were registered against eight of these MLAs following their election in 2014. The NGO had surveyed 31 of the 36 MLAs. The report, titled ‘Praja on MLAs’, also states the legislators have become less accessible to the common man.
Project director Milind Mhaske said, “We gave negative marks to MLAs against whom a charge sheet or a case pertaining serious crime has been filed. But most of the new FIRs filed do not call for more than two years of imprisonment and are of non-serious nature. So there was no negative marking given to these MLAs.”
LESS ACCESSIBLE
Besides focusing on the criminal background of the netas, the survey also brought to the fore the fast-declining accessibility of these elected representatives. The survey report claimed that the overall accessibility has dropped by 23.14% since 2011.
REPORT CARD
The grades accorded to the MLAs were issued in adherence to the parameters like: the number and quality of questions asked, accessibility to citizens, criminal history and attendance, among others.
The report further mentioned that while the quality of questions asked in the Assembly has increased, the quantity has reduced — from 7,964 questions in 2011 to 4,343 in 2016.
Moreover, the average cumulative performance of the surveyed MLAs stood at 65.11%, an increase of 3.88% in comparison to the average score in 2011.
Amin Patel of Congress has bagged the highest score, followed by Sunil Prabhu of the Shiv Sena.
The report was complied after surveying a sample size of 2,500 people.
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