Since the assembly poll are round the corner in the state and political parties are raising fingers about the performance of each other, two non-government organisations (NGOs), promoting electoral reforms have tried to present the entire working of assembly in present tenure. In its finding it also revealed the bleak sides of Himachal legislators as there are 26 legislators who have criminal cases against them.
Advocating transparency and performance, in the press conference coordinator of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) Anil Bairwal claimed that HP assembly has twenty-six out of the total of 68 legislators in the state assembly have criminal cases against them. BJP top the list with 22 and Congress party has three legislators, who have cases against them and one is independent.
NGOs said that the Himachal Pradesh assembly has the maximum of 26 sittings per year on average. He said that assembly passed 107 bills during the entire term of the Himachal Pradesh assembly between 2007 and 2012.
He added that though the salaries and perks of the MLAs have been increasing but there is virtually no discussion on the role of the legislators. Bairwal demanded the more transparency and better performance of the legislators and for it all political parties should include the parameters for improving the performance of legislators in their election manifestoes.
