Now MLAs too get a Report Card!

 Do you decline to use your right to vote on the basis that you do not know the candidate well enough? Or do you vote for anyone on the basis that they are all equally corrupt and it makes no difference? Now, voters of Delhi can eliminate these gripes from their lives as they go in for assembly elections in a month’s time.

An NGO Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) has started this initiative using RTI, where they will make the elected representatives more accountable by assessing their past performance. So, now, as the candidates’ come knocking on the doors of Delhi-ites with a smile and a host of promises, they can be taken to severe task by the citizens of their constituencies and asked to explain their past performance. The MLA Report Card will demonstrate how concerned the MLA was about your concerns the last time you elected him and how much he has delivered. Times of India will publish these reports in a new series, and empower people to take informed decisions regarding their precious vote. Reports TOI:

Under the MLA Local Area Development Fund, each MLA can spend up to Rs 2 crore on development works in his constituency each year. Did your MLA align this work with your needs and priorities? Or was it to help his cronies? In short, was public money – Rs 10 crore in five years – well-utilised or wasted?

You can now judge if you really needed those parks when the roads in your colony were crumbling. Or if you got water when you really needed it. And what about the promised baraat ghar ? Give your MLA a pat if he has performed well. Or tell him to get off. That will tell our MLAs that they can’t take you for granted. It will clean the system and give you a role in governance.

With elections just around the corner, this is the need of the hour. Indians have always felt the limitation of not knowing enough about their elected representatives, and the work they were doing seemed to be shrouded in a veil of mystery, unless some scandal exploded in their face. This will go a great length in enabling people to make an informed choice, so that lack of information no longer remains an excuse for electing the wrong people to power.

Read the complete article here.

Image courtesy: www.india-briefing.com