Many red marks on MLA report card

NEW DELHI: An assessment by Mumbai-based voluntary organisation Praja Foundation of the performance of the MLAs in the Delhi assembly has drawn largely an unflattering picture and will also serve as a wake-up call for the people’s representatives. The assessment pertains to the period from February 24, 2015, to December, 2015. The NGO has been bringing out annual report cards of Mumbai MLAs since 2011.(See graphic for a brief introduction to the methodology and parameters, available in detail on the NGO’s website.)
About 33% of the 58 MLAs (12 were left out) ranked for their performance on various parameters, including engagement with issues in the Delhi assembly, were found to be hardly participating in the deliberations. Praja assessed that on the quality of issues raised, 72% of the MLAs were under-performing.
Three MLAs did not raise any issues and 16 only between one and five. Also, 20 had a criminal record as on December 31, 2015. Ten of these had cases registered against them, according to their affidavits, before the elections while 10 got cases against them later.
The report card attempts to focus on the quality of governance, and the performance of the elected representatives and their background. It captures the perception of people through a survey of 29,950 individuals.
Ranked No. 1 is Krishna Nagar AAP MLA SK Bagga, followed by BJP MLA from Mustafabad Jagdish Pradhan and AAP MLA from Lakshmi Nagar Nitin Tyagi, in that order. Interestingly, BJP’s controversial MLA from Vishwas Nagar, Om Prakash Sharma, is in the fourth spot, followed by Rajendra Pal Gautam (Seemapuri), Anil Kumar Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Bhavna Gaur (Palam), Pankaj Pushkar (Timarpur), Mahinder Goyal (Rithala) and Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk).
Tughlaqabad MLA Sahi Ram is right at the bottom at 58. Raghuvinder Shokeen (Nangloi) is a rank above him, preceded by Prakash (Deoli), Akhilesh Pati Tripathi (Model Town) and Rakhi Birla (Mangolpuri).
Dwarka MLA Adarsh Shastri has earned the title of “Mr Clean” and shares it with Seelampur MLA Mohd Ishraque and Janakpuri MLA Rajesh Rishi. They have no criminal record and are perceived to be least corrupt. Public service and accessibility has got Sadar Bazar MLA Som Dutt, Ambedkar Nagar MLA Ajay Dutt and Okhla MLA Amantulla Khan the title of “Mr Popular”.
The leader of the opposition, Vijender Gupta (Rohini), has been ranked 36 but with the title of “Mr Committed”, on the basis of the number and quality of issues raised in the house. His party MLAs, Om Prakash Sharma -- who has often been the news for the wrong reasons and was even suspended from the house later for two sessions -- and Jagdish Pradhan, too, got the same title for the same reasons.
Praja obtained the data used in preparing this report card through RTI. Delhi assembly met for just 26 days between February 24 and December 22 in 2015. Only 951 issues were raised by 58 MLAs.
(TOI has not independently verified the information and assessment.)