Times of India: Nagpur: Sunday,
March 09, 2014.
People vote
for elect representatives with a hope that they would raise issues about voters
in the legislative houses like parliament and assembly. These representatives
are expected to pressing the government for answers and solutions to the
issues. The level of commitment towards the people can be gauged from the
number of queries/issues the representatives raise and debate in the house.
An RTI query
has revealed that as many as 45 of 202 elected MLAs from western Maharashtra
and Vidarbha failed to ask even a single query during the winter session of
state legislature held in Nagpur from December 9 to 20. Of course, these
include several ministers and speaker and the deputy who normally do not ask
questions.
In reply to
activist Abhay Kolarkar's questions, section-cum-information officer at
Maharashtra legislature Sangeeta Vidhate informed that 61 MLAs from Vidarbha
had raised 1,451 queries that included 287 starred, 685 unstarred and 479
rejected questions. Similarly, 59 MLAs from Western Maharashtra asked 748
questions, including 141 starred, 344 unstarred and 263 rejected ones.
Since the
session was held in Vidarbha, MLAs from this region were expected to raise more
queries. Fifteen of them, however, didn't raise even a single issue. There are
six ministers and deputy speaker Vasant Purke among them who can be excused.
Others like former minister Rajendra Shingane and Dilipkumar Sananda from
Buldhana, Ashok Shinde from Hinganghat, former minister of state from Saoner
Sunil Kedar, Gondia MLA Gopaldas Agrawal, and Anand Gedam from Gadchiroli had
no excuse to be inactive. The list also includes former President Pratibha
Patil's son Raosaheb and Ravi Rana who was expelled for demonstrating inside
the assembly during the session. In fact, Congress had given ticket to
ex-president's son ignoring popular sentiments of the people who wanted former
minister Sunil Deshmukh to contest from the seat.
On the other
hand, there were some who showed a great passion towards raising issues from
own as well as other constituencies. Kamptee MLA Chandrashekhar Bawankule leads
the list with 78 queries.
Six are
ministers who did not raise any query were- EGS minister Nitin Raut, social
justice minister Shivajirao Moghe, environment and cultural affairs minster
Sanjay Deotale, minister for food and civil supplies Anil Deshmukh, food and
drugs administration minister Manohar Naik and minister of state for water
supply and sanitation Ranjit Kamble.
No question
asked
MLAs who
failed to raise even a single query- Rajendra Shingane, Dilipkumar Sananda,
Ashok Shinde, Sunil Kedar, Gopaldas Agrawal, Anand Gedam, Raosaheb Shekhawat
and Ravi Rana
MLAs with
less than 10 queries- Haridas Bhade from Bhandara, Lakhan Malik from Washim,
and Suresh Deshmukh from Wardha
Between 10
& 20 - Sanjay Kute from Buldhana, Baliram Siraskar from Akola, Prakash
Dahake from Washim, Bachu Kadu and Anil Bonde from Amravati, Sudhir Parwe and
Krishna Khopde from Nagpur, Ramratan Raut from Gondia, Dr Namdeo Usandi from
Gadchiroli, and Nandini Parvekar from Yavatmal.
MLAs raising
highest no of questions - Chandrashekhar Bawankule (78), Nana Patole (65),
Rajkumar Badole (56), Vikas Kumbhare (55), and Yashomati Thakur (48).
(Pertains to
only MLAs from Vidarbha)
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