A Study on West Bengal Legislative Assembly

West Bengal Social Watch releases a Citizen’s Report on the performances of the 15TH West Bengal State Legislative Assembly till date. West Bengal Social Watch organized a ‘Discussion Meet on Current State of Affairs vis-à-vis Role of Citizens’ on November 30, 2013.

Shri Chittotosh Mukherjee, former Chief Justice of Kolkata & Mumbai High Courts participated in the Press Conference hold on November 30, 2013.
The citizens have therefore the right to know how their representatives are discharging their duties in the Assembly. The report is an attempt to provide some basic information about the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and, in particular, about the functioning of the present Assembly (15th Assembly), which was constituted in May 2011.

The report gives a brief history of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and then proceeds on to provide information on various aspects of the 15th Assembly, such as,  party position in the Assembly, average asset of present MLAs, their educational background, age group of members, gender composition of the Assembly, pending criminal cases against MLAs etc.  The report also provides information on the attendance of members, details of sessions and sittings held in different assemblies of West Bengal, working hours of the Assembly during 2012-13, questions answered in and the number of calling attention motions discussed during 2012-13 session of the Assembly. The report also contains critical analysis of some data, including a brief analysis of certain instances of deviant parliamentary practices.

West Bengal Social Watch (WBSW) is a process initiated by the multi stakeholders of the civil society and Forum of Voluntary Organisations, West Bengal (FOVOWB), a network of leading voluntary organizations of the state. It is a federation of NGOs/CSOs,CBOs/ Social Movements and Democratic Individuals for monitoring performances of Democratic Institutions of Governance and processes in order to uphold inclusive democracy and human rights. It is a partner of National Social Watch (NSW) and works closely with similar social watch processes all over India.

See the report here.