As Haryana is ready to polls on October 21, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has analyzed the performance of MLAs of the 13th Legislative Assembly, found that out of 91 MLAs analysed, only 75 MLAs have asked questions in the 13th Legislative Assembly of Haryana.
If asking questions is the parameter of performance, Congress MLA from Tosham constituency Kiran Choudhry has fared on top with 225 starred questions. She is closely followed by Indian National Lok Dal's Naina Singh Chautala from the Dabwali constituency. In fact in the top ten performer, in terms of asking questions, there's only one MLA from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - Prem Lata.
There are 16 MLAs who haven't bothered to ask even a single question, be it about the state or raising issues pertaining to their respective constituencies. Congress' national face Randeep Singh Surjewala and BJP spokesperson Captain Abhimanyu are among them.
"I don't know why they are not keen to ask questions... In fact, bills are passed without much discussions. It's not a happy state (of affairs)," said Maj. Gen. Anil Verma (retd.), who heads the ADR.
According to ADR, though, of 174 bills, 170 were passed, which is an impressive 98 per cent, it also highlights the brute majority of the BJP in the house, and a scattered opposition. While overall, there is not much mismatch between the number of sittings of the house planned and held, there are MLAs who did not fare well.
But what's surprising is information on Haryana MLAs' attendance were refused when sought by the poll watchdog. Verma laments: "I don't know what's so secret about that?"
The ADR report also said that 75 out of the 90 sitting MLAs in Haryana possess assets worth more than one crore rupees.
According to the ADR report, the average of assets per sitting MLA in Haryana was Rs 12.97 crore.
Party-wise, the average assets per MLA for 48 BJP MLAs analysed was Rs 10.34 crore, while for 18 MLAs of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the average assets stood at Rs 13.63 crore.