28 July,2011 08:48 PM IST | | A Correspondent
Praja Foundation has created a unique ranking system for Mumbai's 32 MLAs. This report was released at a press conference earlier today.
At a well attended event in Mumbai today, Praja Foundation released their first ever Report Card, ranking the Members of the Legislative Assembly from Mumbai area.
"Looking at the growing problems of Governance and the ever increasing needs of the citizens there is a need of a continuous dialogue and appraisal of the working of the elected representatives. It is this need of continuous dialogue and appraisal that made us develop this Report Card." said Nitai Mehta, Managing Trustee, Praja Foundation.
The appraisal has been done keeping in mind the constitutional role and responsibility of the elected representatives and the opinion of their electorate.
The ratings are based on:
(a) Data accessed through RTI on attendance of Assembly sessions, number and type of questions raised, use of discretionary funds, etc.
(b) Personal interviews with 28,707 citizens of Mumbai conducted by a Hansa research, to investigate the views of citizens on their elected representatives.
"While 60% weightage has been given to the performance of the MLAs as defined by the Constitution of India, garnered primarily through RTI, 40% weightage is on the perception of an MLA among the citizen of his/her constituency. The differential weightages between performance and perception makes the ranking more credible and balanced," added Mehta.
The Scale for measuring the functioning of the MLAs has been designed by Praja with inputs from reputed people with sectoral knowledge in governance, political science, social science, market research and media.
The top ranker, at number 1, revealed through the Praja Report Card is Mangesh Eknath Sangle, MNS fromu00a0 Vikroli area. Following him at number 2 is Jagannath Achanna Shetty, INC from the Sion-Koilwada and at number 3 is Sardar Tara Singh, BJP from Mulund.
Praja was founded in 1997 by a group of eight Mumbaites with a vision to re-establish accountability and transparency in governance. Nitai Mehta says a Report Card to rank elected representatives will be published each year.
