In the past three years,
Odisha House did not
function beyond 75%
of days it assembled
Bhubaneswar: The State Assembly, considered the temple of democracy entrusted to discusss, deliberate and resolve public issues, has not transacted any business for at least 104 planned days in the past 10 years while the 2018 was their worst year when there was no business for 233 days, says an RTI reply.
In response to a plea filed by RTI activist Pradip Pradhan, the Assembly Secretariat here admitted that the House was supposed to conduct business for 616 days between 2009 and 2018. However, the the Assembly could function only for 512 days.
The RTI response, literally means 104 important business days had been wasted due to political slugfest between the parties, whose elected representatives were supposed to raise issues of their constituencies in the House.
Legislatures are primarily responsible for passing laws and approving budgets. The legislatures, through various mechanisms, act as overseeing entities on the performance of the executive (government). Undoubtedly, the fewer sittings that the Assembly got to transact business could not have functioned with the proper responsibility of scrutiny.
The House virtually functioned for all the planned days in 2010 and 2012. Ironically, it did not complete all business days, it should have worked in the remaining eight years. A total of 104 important business days were not conducted in eight years.
Data shows the House did not transact for 23 business days last year (2018) followed by 2016 (19 days), 2017 (17 days), 2014 (11 days), 2015 and 2009 (10 days each), 2013 (eight days) and 2011 (six days). The failure to transact business has shown a steady rise in the numbaer
During the past 10 years, the number of business days were raised twice; one day each time. The first and fifteenth (last) sessions of the 14th Assembly had functioned for a day more than the planned days. Article 174 of the Constitution specifies that the gap between two sittings of the state legislatures should not be more than six months. However, it does not prescribe any number of sitting days for the Assemblies. In 2002, a National Commission set up to review the working of the Constitution recommended that the State Legislatures with less than 70 members should meet for at least 50 days in a year, and other Houses should meet for at least 90 days.
However, between 2009 and 2018, the state Assembly had planned to run the House between 59 and 65 days a year. This number is far below the recommended days of work. This highlights the reluctance, on the part of the government to comply with the basic requirements of the Constitution.
