BJP minister Sunil Kumar and MLA of Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party R Shankar had the least number of attendance with just four days.
On average, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly was held for only 25 days per year between 2018 and 2023 and the longest session was 26 sittings, held during February-March 2022, according to the recent report from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Karnataka Election Watch released here on Wednesday.
The Analysis of the Performance of MLAs (2018- 23) revealed that in the party-wise attendance segment out of the total 150 days, JDS MLAs had the highest attendance with 107 days and the Congress legislators the least with 95 days.
BJP minister Sunil Kumar and MLA of Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party R Shankar had the least number of attendance with just four days. BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi had 10 days of attendance and BJP Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar, 15 days of attendance, out of the 150 days. Belur MLA K S Lingesh and Kalaghatgi MLA Channappa Mallappa Nimbannavar had full attendance.
Prof Trilochan Sastry, Chairman, and founder member, ADR, said, “In just 25 days of the session, how can the MLAs address the issues of people?” Speaking on the sidelines of releasing the report, he said if it would have been for students with poor attendance in college, they would not have been allowed to write exams.
Congress Shanthinagar MLA N A Haris topped the list of candidates for asking the highest number of questions (591), followed by Congress Indi MLA Yashvathrayagouda Patil (532). Former chief ministers -- Siddaramaiah, H D Kumaraswamy, B S Yediyurappa and Jagadish Shettar did not ask even a single question in the assembly, the report showed.
Over 2,200 questions were asked on general administration and finance. In the social welfare category, 1,516 questions were raised. Under the party-wise average questions raised category, JD(S) MLAs topped the list with 163 questions and BJP MLAs ranked the lowest with 90 questions. Of the total 214 bills tabled, 202 bills were passed, the report revealed.
During a seminar titled ‘Voter Awareness, Money and Muscle Power in the Karnataka Election 2023’, Prof Sastry said the Election Commission of India has not taken any action against hate and communal speeches.
Social activist Vinay Sreenivasa said against the constitutional vision that has given rights to any citizen to contest elections, it is the candidates who have the money power, caste dominance and muscle power who are getting to contest the elections.
