Do we really need an MLA for our Constituency

Shanjoy Mairembam *

Out of curiosity, two self-puzzling questions often arise to many:
1) Do we really need an MLA for socio-economic development of our Constituency?
2) How relevant is 'who is the MLA for the Constituency’ to You & I in our day-to-day lives and during the entire 5-yr duration of an MLA's tenure?

General people tend to mix up personal emotions and relationship with the purpose to VOTE in the assembly election!!! If one votes without asking to self – ‘Why I vote?’ and ‘Whom I vote for which specific reasons?’, then it only shows 'HOW STUPID & WHAT AN IDIOT I AM?’

The post of MLA is just intended as a Professional VOLUNTEERED post for the number of people in the constituency. His/her main responsibility and purpose of existence is to check, to reason, to suggest input to the administrative system of the Govt functionary so that people's emotions are taken into consideration. So, technically, he/she is just like a 'RECEPTIONIST' for receiving people's feedbacks; nothing more n nothing less.

A strong and effective administrative services system (comprising of IAS, IPS, directors, Commissioners, etc) is the key to bringing overall social development and NOT just via the presence of MLAs. Again, even if there is no MLAs, society can still EXIST with prosperity as long as each individual knows what's own social responsibility.

Technical deliveries of projects (such as dam construction, school supervision, road development, electricity supply, etc) are the mandated duties of officials working in the administrative section of the GOVT. Again, PEOPLE as individuals need to own up activities in all means of livelihood by working in respective industry sector; because govt administrative officials are just like ACCOUNTANTS and SUPERVISOR who are there to note down what's completed and what's next to execute in the overall development plan of the society. Interestingly, those development plans are not just created by these IAS officers out of nowhere, but most contents in those plans are from strategists and thinkers from industry and academic policy researchers.

So, if the presence or absence of MLA does not impact YOU & I, then ‘WHY SHOULD You & I EVER BOTHER WHO IS ELECTED AS MLA?’ Moreover, if something is not working in the society, You & I can just go to the concerned department and sort out directly!!!! The only reason to give little extra emphasis for MLA (to VOTE or not VOTE) is 'MLA has the legal right to steer the wheels of these IAS n other officials in govt administrative services to the emotion of people’. So, choice of MLA ought to focus on BIGGER PICTURE if he/she can listen to public and question those administrative officials about what's best for people (though actual task execution ought to be left to the concerned govt officials).

Then, how do YOU & I decide whom to vote? Is there any simple logical tool help me exercising my legal right to vote?

Let's have a table with columns and rows. Let’s write down the key points for comparison and analysis in the first column from 1st row to the last row. Lets’ also write the candidate names competing for MLA post in the constituency on the columns of the first row. Let’s use a scoring approach [from 1 (low value) to 10 (high value)] for each of the key points of comparison to the boxes of respective MLA candidates. The one which scores highest may be your choice to give your VALUABLE VOTE.

Thus, for example:

Point of Comparison (i.e. Core values) >> Use a number to score between 1 and 10	Candidate-1	Candidate-2
SELF INTEGRITY
EMPOWERING OTHERS
VISION FOR LOCAL PEOPLE
PEOPLE FIRST & PARTY LAST
HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE of Govt administration
SOCIAL TOUCH & LISTENS to poor as well as rich
LEADERSHIP & IN-COMMAND among Peers
NO RECORD OF PAST CORRUPTION
SOMEONE YOU FEEL PROUD TO TELL 'It’s our MLA' GLOBALLY even to foreign nations
WHO CAN BRING IN NEW JOBS, MONEY, PROJECTS 4PEOPLE
Total Score	???	???

Again, one way to check HOW CORRUPT the local MLA is
1) CHECK THE FINANCIAL SELF DECLARATION FILED BY EACH CANDIDATE DURING MLA NOMINATION
[Explore documents from the website of Election Commission of India]
2) THEN, COMPARE THAT FIGURE TO ACTUAL EARNING HE/SHE COULD HAVE MADE REALISTICALLY

By the way, an MLA has the following PAY and PERKS for the MLA position they occupy.
1) An allocated funds in the amount around INR 50 Lacs - 1crore for the constituency to be used in the 5yr term. -- BY DEFAULT
2) Annual salary of around INR 12 Lacs with add-on perk of say INR 1000 per day during assembly session, free petrol [allocated litres], free travel [some number of air/trains including foreign travel], free telephone calls [including ISD], secretaryship allowance, pensions, driver allowance, medical allowance, family allowance, house/rent allowance, constituency visit allowance, postal allowance, etc. So altogether approx around 30 lacs per annum -- BY DEFAULT

Anyone can make use of Right to Information Act [RTI] to find the details of following info from local District collector or Magistrate and other relevant state govt departments.
1) How much money has been spent out of the allocated MLA fund (INR 50 Lacs – 1Crore) into what projects? And what is the IMPACT (i.e. visible benefits or feedbacks) from the project implementation?
2) Whenever a project funded by govt is to be sanctioned in a constituency, the MLA has a big say in terms of finance and project deliverables since the project is likely to impact local people of that constituency.
So, how much money has been spent on each of development project taken up in the constituency and what’s the visible IMPACT?


Thus, a voter ought to be able to check HOW CORRUPT the local MLA is. 'MORE THE MONEY A CANDIDATE SPEND OUT TO WIN DURING ELECTION CAMPAIGN, HE/SHE WILL BE MORE CORRUPT AS AN MLA IN ORDER TO RECOVER THE SPENT ELECTION EXPENSES’; then, ‘What kind of development activities, that MLA can do then for the constituency?’

Thus, if one votes without asking to self – ‘Why I vote?’ and ‘Whom I vote for which specific reasons?’, then it only shows 'HOW STUPID & WHAT AN IDIOT I AM?’

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* Shanjoy Mairenbam is a Business Strategy Consultant from UK and regularly contributes to e-pao. You can find his articles on various topics relating to Manipur here or visit his blog.
The writer can be contacted at shanjoym at gmail dot com
This article was posted on January 20, 2012.

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