A report by the PRS Legislative Research – a non-profit engaged in research work to help legislators better understand their mandate and the public to seek accountability from their elected representatives, states that the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly met only 13 days in 2024. Considering that the legislature is the only platform where MLAs from the Opposition can seek accountability from the executive – the government – which is the custodian of public funds and is responsible for governance, this short duration session would seem like a license for misuse of such funds and to escape accountability. The legislature is above all the law-making authority and with the passage of time new laws have to be in place and outdated laws reformed. Of course, it takes a lot of preparation both from the side of the Government and the Opposition MLAs to debate issues in the Assembly. It requires going into the entire gamut of the Constitution and judging which laws need to be in place for the state. For instance, there was a time when rivers were clean and pristine. Now there is a law stating in clear terms that no construction can take place within a designated area and any violations would result in punishment under various sections of the law. In fact, river pollution and how that needs to be tackled has never been discussed in the Assembly.
The issue of children as young as 10-12 years dropping out of school and having to work because of extreme poverty has never been discussed. Poverty alleviation measures have not been spelt out as a goal that the state would adopt through a set of interventions. True the state has come up with several schemes to create livelihoods but only a few have been able to access them. These are subjects that need deliberation and substantiated with concrete data. The issue of road connectivity and the quality of roads built which are of very inferior quality carried away by the first heavy monsoon showers and the demand for a strong monitoring mechanism has never been demanded by the Opposition MLAs. Water supply through the Jal Jeevan Mission and the challenges faced were not discussed. The Government had the option of laying its cards on the table and seeking out the cooperation of all the MLAs but never did that. The duties of legislators do not end with the Assembly session. They need to be continuously engaged with the Government to point out governance failures.
It is also noticed that not all MLAs are present during the sessions. The last session had scanty attendance especially from the ruling party. With regards to passing of bills, however, the PRS data also showed that while in some states bills were passed on the first day after minimum discussion, in Meghalaya 75% of bills were passed after 5 days of discussion and deliberations. This is a good indicator that MLAs take their jobs seriously. What needs greater attention is for MLAs to discuss the budget allocations and to deliberate on why a certain amount is allocated for education or health and how the allocation was arrived at. For this to happen we need MLAs to be better informed and with adequate financial literacy.
