Times
of India: Bangalore: Friday, 31 October 2014.
It's a
Congressman who has fired the maximum number of questions at the state
government in the legislative assembly. And four MLAs from the city haven't
bothered to ask a single question.
In one year
(from July 2013 to July 2014), during which five assembly sessions have been
held, city legislators have asked 1,427 questions. The data, obtained through
the RTI Act, was released by Daksh, an NGO.
Shanthinagar
MLA NA Haris has posed the maximum number of questions, 266. JD(S) MLA from
Mahalakshmi Layout K Gopalaiah is second with 260, followed by Ravi Subramanya
LA (BJP, Basavanagudi - 115); ST Somashekar (Congress, Yeshwanthpur - 93); R
Ashoka (BJP, Padmanabhanagar - 87); BN Vijay Kumar (BJP, Jayanagar - 84).
Four MLAs --
Raghu (BJP, CV Raman Nagar); Priya Krishna (Congress, Govindarajnagar); RV
Devaraj (Congress, Chamarajpet); BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan (JDS, Chamarajpet) --
haven't asked a single question. Two other Congressmen -- M Krishnappa
(Vijayanagar) and Shivanna B (Anekal) asked just four questions.
Being in the
opposition, BJP MLAs have asked the maximum questions. Out of 1,427 questions,
BJP legislators have raised 641 (44.91%), followed by Congress 478 (33.49%),
and JD(S) MLAs have sought answers for 308 (21.58%) questions.
The city has
28 MLAs - 13 from Congress, 12 from BJP and three from JD(S). Of the 13
Congressmen, five are ministers and therefore don't ask questions. This means
eight MLAs of the party asked the 467 questions. Before becoming a minister, R
Roshan Baig asked 11 questions.
Most
questions are unstarred (members are given written answers). The starred
questions (oral answers) are discussed in the assembly during Question Hour.
The assembly starts its proceedings with the Question Hour.
The maximum
questions have been directed at the urban development department which handles
the city's administration. Chief minister Siddaramaiah is the Bangalore City
development minister.