I Evaluated My Sitting MLA Through A Bunch of RTIs And He Failed

As the elections draw closer, we get multiple calls from political enthusiasts to check the background of each candidate contesting in our constituency and cast our vote for the deserving candidate rather than our favourite party. There are multiple apps available to ‘know our candidate’ at the snap of a button, which compile the data available in the affidavits submitted by the candidates to the election commission. While this is extremely useful to evaluate the candidates, one step forward would be to evaluate our sitting MLAs for their actual performance. Here, such an attempt has been made to evaluate the performance of my MLA of the infamous Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency, Mr. TTV. Dinakaran.

We may all remember RK nagar and TTV. Dinakaran for one of the most interesting political episodes that followed after the demise of the CM Jayalalitha. First, he contested under AIADMK banner in the by-election that was called off by ECI for cash-for-vote scam and the next election where he contested as an independent under the notorious pressure-cooker symbol. He was alleged for having scammed the voters by disbursing 20Rs. Notes as token for a greater sum of money that will be issued after elections once the poll watchdog relaxes its stringent watch. However, it never happened and TTV stayed away from the constituency for the rest of his tenure. Currently, he is contesting from Kovilpatti, smartly avoiding RK nagar. His innovative formula to win Kovilpatti may come out only after the election.

Evaluating TTV. Dinakaran’s term in RK Nagar:

Through a set of RTIs, the following information were demanded from concerned government departments;

·       His attendance in the legislative assembly

·       List of questions he has raised in the assembly and the debates he took part

·       Standing committees he is part of in the assembly.

·       Welfare schemes he has proposed in the constituency from his MLACDS fund and its status

Other than this, his affidavit submitted to the ECI was accessed from the ECI website to check his criminal record and educational qualification.

MLA’s background check:

His affidavit says he has 7 criminal cases against him and his educational qualification is plus two. Also, he is a dropout from civil engineering degree. He has total self-declared assets over 11 crore rupees.

MLA’s performance in the assembly:

As far as his attendance in the assembly is concerned, the TN assembly rejects disclosing any details of MLA’s attendance as a breach of privilege. So, this data cannot be sought. It must be noted that such attendance details are available for LS & RS members in the government website itself. States like Karnataka too have furnished such details in their official website. There is a long way to go for Tamil Nadu to implement such measures, where the lawmakers are still not ready to live telecast assembly proceedings to the people.

Since Mr. MLA took charge there has been 6 assembly sessions, in which he has not raised a single question in the assembly either for the people or for the constituency. He has never utilised the question hours even remotely productive and he scores a duck in that as per RTI answer from the assembly.

However, he has took part in a few debates. 5 times to be exact. The details of which are available in www.assembly.tn.gov.in. In these 5 times, he has not spoken anything remarkable too, one was after the Tuticorin Sterlite incident and the other times where he was just indulging in petty exchanges with his former colleagues turned rivals of the AIADMK faction. His assembly performance too is close to nothing.

Out of the 12 standing committees of the house, he is part of only one, which is Papers laid on the table of the house.

Welfare schemes to the constituency through MLACDS funds:

Each MLA is assigned to the tune of Rs. 3 crores per year as MLACDS fund. An RTI filed to the collectorate on the details of how these funds are appropriated in the constituency was sent back and forth to various departments among themselves for 3 long months before Chennai corporation finally furnished the details.

The RTI reveal says he has sanctioned up to 8.94 crore Rupees from financial year 2017-18 to 2020-21. Most of which are infrastructure development in government schools and anganwadis, noon-meal centres, laying concrete roads and so on including a sanction for equipping his so called ‘office’ in the constituency with computers.

The MLACDS funds are however not an effective measure for evaluation since all the MLAs get the prescribed amount and are diverted to the concerned local bodies from where funds are allocated to multiple departments.

TTV Dinakaran’s marksheet:

MLA Background (education & criminal cases): 5/20

MLA Performance in assembly: 7/50

MLACDS funds: 18/30

Total – 30/100 [FAIL]

A comprehensive evaluation of all sitting MLAs and ranking them shall prove to be wielding more power to the public, making the legislators accountable for their performance. When every employee sits through a process of evaluation every year, why should our elected representatives be exempted?