Data shows K'taka ministers showed up to just 24% of 150 sittings in Assembly

How serious is your MLA about his job? Data made public by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows that 44 MLAs, including 25 ministers in the BJP government, didn't attend even half of the 150 sittings held over the last five years.

The ADR released the data, obtained through RTI and from public domain, related to the attendance of the legislators for the list five years, covering 1.5 years of Congress-JD(S) coalition government as well as the BJP government.

Excluding those who ceased to be members for various reasons, the BJP has 113 members in the House, including the migrants who helped bring the saffron party to power. As many as 30 BJP MLAs, including 25 ministers, didn't attend even half of the 150 sittings with their average attendance standing at 24 per cent.

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V Sunil Kumar, Ramesh Jarakiholi, Dr K Sudhakar were the top three absentee legislators. While Anand Singh, B C Patil and Narayanagouda, B A Basavaraj, Prabhu Chavan, Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri, Dr Ashwath Narayan C N, K Gopalaiah, Shivaram Hebbar and S T Somashekhar had attendance below 19 per cent, as per the attendance data given by the Assembly secretariat.

Of the 74 Congress legislators, nine members had poor attendance. Ajay Singh (21 per cent), G Parameshwara (28 per cent) and Siddaramaiah's (30 per cent) were the top three poor performers .

Among the 27 JD(S) members, there were four with poor attendance. M C Managooli (11 per cent), H D Kumaraswamy (29 per cent) and Anitha Kumaraswamy (45 per cent) were the top three poor performers.

The ADR also stated that "it was a practice" among the ministers not to sign the attendance register. ADR state coordinator Kathyayini Chamaraj noted that the absence of the ministers makes it difficult to bring accountability. "While attendance and active participation of all members is a prerequisite for the functioning of the Assembly, the absence of the ministers is a huge concern. It applies to all parties in power. Because ministers wield that power and need to answer for their actions," she said.

Noting that ADR's work in the past has helped in bringing some level of transparency in the electoral process she said, they will approach the courts to seek a mechanism for ensuring better participation of the MLAs. "Political parties can't be expected to act in this matter. We will seek the court's intervention to ensure that those who are not attending the sessions are not fit to be in the House," she added.