Performing MLAs to be awarded: Puducherry governor Kiran Bedi

In the first of its kind, Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi announced that performing legislators will be awarded for their dedication and sincerity at workplace. On Tuesday, she decided to create a report card of sorts, which will be updated, depending on the ratings provided by the people of a particular constituency.

The cut-off marks is 70% and even the chief minister V Narayanasamy will be judged since he is a legislator too. Following complains of irregularities or inefficiency in addressing Swachh Bharat initiatives and community development  work in their constituencies, the Lt Governor hit upon this idea.

Referring to the initiative taken by a former Chennai mayor and DMK MLA Subramanian where he encouraged civilians to take up cleanliness programs in their vicinity in the Saidapet Assembly constituency, Bedi said, "What if every MLA in Puducherry does this (a la Subramanian). The UT will be clean… with minimum support of public fund. We would like to get going on this with people’s participation. The parameters will be identified and then people can be asked to rate their respective MLAs." 

Further explaining the criteria, she said, that the awardee should have more than 70 percent rating and there will be no grace marks. There are no restrictions on the number of MLAs who are eligible for the award. Bedi said, "the more the better, she said, adding that the date of the award would be decided in due course."

The assessment will be done online. Although the process is still being fine-tuned, the rating will be available on the Raj Nivas website. Meanwhile, Congress MLA and parliamentary secretary to the chief minister K Lakshminarayanan saw red in the move. They believe that this is a misuse of power by Bedi. Lakshminarayanan said, "Very few people are familiar with online assessment and only those following the Lt Governor on social media or online will respond. This is not real assessment by the people. It is like a sample survey, which often gives wrong results." He further added that many people are not aware about the system behind answering questionnaires. 

However, Bedi defended the system saying that every new launch has a flip side. It just remains to be seen how it goes and then make an assessment basing on this. 
 

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