Report Cards of Members of Parliament

In order to assess the performance of individual Members of Parliament, prior to the Lok Sabha elecetions in May 2009, Satark Nagrik Sangathan developed Report Cards using information obtained under the RTI Act. Report Cards on the performance of about 250 prominent MPs from all major national political parties were developed.

Each Report Card assessed the performance of the MP on the basis of the following three objective parameters linked to their primary roles and responsibilities:

1. Performance in the Lok Sabha- As members of the Lok Sabha, MPs are responsible for passing bills (laws) for the country, monitoring the functioning of the executive, approving the budget and discussing issues of public importance. For the Report Card the performance of MPs in the Lok Sabha was assessed on the basis of the number of sittings that they attended, the number of questions they raised, the number of times they participated in the proceedings and the number of bills they introduced. The questions raised by them and their participation in the proceedings were analysed issue-wise to gauge the priorities of the MP. This information was collated for their performance across all 3 sessions (Budget, Monsoon and Winter sessions) of the Lok Sabha held in 2007.



2. Performance in Parliamentary Standing Committees- The work done by the Parliament is not only varied and complex in nature, but also considerable in volume. The Parliament cannot, therefore, give close consideration to all matters that come up before it. A good deal of its business is, therefore, transacted in Committees of the House, known as Parliamentary Committees. For the purpose of the Report Cards, the membership of each MP in the Parliamentary Standing Committees was compiled from 2004 to 2008. These Committees are permanent and regular committees. The Financial Committees, Departmentally Related Standing Committees and some other Committees come under the category of Parliamentary Standing Committees.

In the Report Cards, the performance of MPs in Parliamentary Standing Committees was assessed on the basis of the number of committee meetings that the MP attended in 2007. Attendance of MPs in Financial and Departmentally Related Standing Committees meetings was compiled.


3. Performance in allocation of MPLADS - Under the MPLAD scheme each MP is allocated Rs. 2 crore per year to carry out development works in their constituency. An analysis of all the projects sanctioned by the MP from the MPLADS between 2004 and 2008 was used as an indicator of the performance of the MP.