Bangalore NGO to monitor state MPs

As a part of its monitoring work, Daksh will first focus on elected representatives of Karnataka and then cover the rest of the country.
Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats from the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 19, the Congress 6, and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) 3.
"The new parliamentarians have already joined their offices. From now onwards we would keenly monitor the developmental works done by Karnataka's parliamentarians in their respective constituencies," Harish Narasappa, one of the four founders of Daksh, said.
"The very idea of Daksh is to develop tools to measure performance of elected governments and representatives and large-scale participation of citizens on local issues and administration, to bring about better accountability and governance," added Narasappa, an advocate.
Daksh was started in 2006 by a group of citizens concerned about the lack of accountability in politics and governance. Daksh currently consists of people from diverse backgrounds including academics, entrepreneurs, lawyers, teachers and social and political activists.
Daksh will supervise the work done by the parliamentarians by giving rates, based on their performance and achievements.
"We will keep a track of the performance of elected representatives by collecting relevant information on a regular basis. We'll also collect and present detailed, query-friendly background information about people in politics," said Narasappa.
"Through our exercise we plan to promote active participation by citizens to ensure accountability in politics and governance. At the end of completion of one year of the 15th Lok Sabha, we'll publish a report on the performance of Karnataka's parliamentarians."
Daksh is currently working on a qualitative report on the performance of key departments of the Karnataka government, including law and order, social welfare, rural development, education, health and power following the state assembly elections in May 2008.
"The report will be produced by experts in different fields. We expect to publish the report by July," said R Dhirendra, one of founder members of Daksh and a city-based entrepreneur.
"We are also making a review of the performance of members of the legislative assembly of the state of Karnataka in the one year following the state elections last year. The review will be based on interviews with members of the legislative assembly and collection of data recorded by the legislative assembly followed by a survey and interviews of citizens. We expect to complete the review in two months," he added.
"Daksh's operational objectives include presenting detailed, query-friendly background information about the persons in the political arena, collecting and tracking perceptions of voters at a local level, presenting human development indicators at the most important unit of political currency - the constituency," said Kishore Mandyam, member of the NGO.
"It's a noble idea. Hope such monitoring will goad our leaders to work for the state's development," observed senior political analyst Sandeep Shastri.
(Maitreyee Boruah can be contacted at [e-mail])