Bootstrapping
Main Page     Feedback? MehtaRahulC@yahoo.com

Proposed   Administrative   Procedure   
#LM.08   :   Procedure   to   Recall   MLAs

Purpose : Reduce damage done by nexuses of MLAs

    Contents
  1. Background
  2. The problem
  3. Proposed ADDITIONAL procedure
  4. The ONLY drawback
  5. Draft of the law to enact procedure #LM.07

Background

The purpose is to improve make India's administration/courts, and hence economy, at par with West. How? By improving record-keeping in GoI offices and reducing nexuses in GoI-offices and courts. How? We would need several laws. LM.08 is the THIRD of these proposed laws. This law will not only improve law-making at city/district level, but would also bootstrap a process that would result into passing 10s of good laws.


The   Problem
  1. Over 999 out of 1000 MLAs get nexused within 6 weeks after getting elected.

  2. Even if a handful of MLAs are committed, those MLAs' priorities may not be in the sync with the priorities of the common men. eg Many MLAs in Gujarat worked overtime to ensure that Universities, schools etc keep getting hundreds of crores of rupees a year while they have zero interest in meeting some urgent needs of the nation such increasing the number of courts, police constables etc. So even we have a non-corrupt MLAs, chances that he would follow common men's agenda are slim.


Proposed Solution : #LM.08 --- Recallable Assistant MLAs

The procedures, as defined by Recallable Assistant MLAs Act, are as follows
  1. The District Collector will work as the Registrar for these procedures.

  2. Any person can pay a fee of say Rs 1000/- to the Registrar, and register himself as an "Assistant/Advisor to MLA" in an Assembly Constituency. The Assistant MLA will need to pay Rs 200 per month to the Registrar to continue his candidacy. The fee will be waived if over 5% citizens Approve him.

  3. Any citizen may or MAY NOT, appoint any of the Assistant MLAs as his representative on Legislative Bills.

  4. To select an Assistant MLA, the citizen voter will need to visit the Registrar's office, pay a fee of Rs 2 to Rs 5 to the clerk, show his voter-ID or ration card, specify the name/number of Assistant MLA whom he wishes to appoint as his "Assistant/Advisor to MLA".

  5. The clerk will enter the citizen's ID number, Assistant MLA's candidate number etc into the computer and the computer will the reciepts. A sample of the reciept is shown below

    SAMPLE   layout   of   the Reciept
      that   the   citizen   will   get   when   he   registers   he   Appoints   a   Assistant   MLA

    

    Alternate Representative in Assembly 
     (Fee : Rs 3)
    

Dear Speaker, 
        I advice you to consider following 
person as my representative hence forth  
                          ---- The Citizen.  

       Reciept Number  3245-345-01                 
                 Date  28/03/2001
Citizen's Card Number  67897899  
       Citizen’s Name  Prakash Mehta   

     Candidate Number  Guj-00562   
       Candidate Name  Jethabhai Patel
 
Clerk’s name, number, sign  
               Suresh Pandya/67-092/S Pandya 

Citizen’s Thumb Print


  6. A citizen can change his Assistant MLA anyday anytime after paying Rs 2 to Rs 5 fee.

  7. For each candidate, for each Assembly constituency, the Registrar will publish the statements every week, showing entries of citizens who have registered their Assistant MLAs. The entries will be sorted by ration card number sand the reciept numbers.

    SAMPLE of the List that each Candidate will get 

    Candidate Number : Guj-00562
Candidate Name   : Jethabhai Patel

Constituency Number : 13/182
Constituency Name   : Shahpur - Gujarat

Number of voters : 145,267

Number of citizens whom you Reprensened, as of last week  13,354   
Number of citizens who selected you last week                  8
Number of citizens who recalled you last week                  2

Number of citizens you Represent = 13354 + 10 - 2 = 12,362


    

Citizens who appointed you as Representative

       Card No        Name             Reciept No 
 1     2158112      Divan, Sudhir         21851   
 2     2350222      Mehta, Vimal          58783   
 3     2885461      Jain, Bimal           40203   
 4     3156068      Patel, Suhas          13720   
 5     3737486      Khan, Suhel           42995   
 6     4040625      Sai, Samir            36446   
 7     4514433      Shankar, P            56375   
 8     4759652      Khan, Suleman         57412   
 9     5176682      Seth, Vineet          99653   
10     5311764      Singh, Jasvinder      19675   


    

Citizens who recalled your Representation 

       Card No        Name               Reciept No 
 1     4020310      Khan, Akbar            14964    
 2     4210275      Holkar, Babu           19675    
 3     4633510      Ramesh, P              42995    
 4     5637330      Divakar, Sudhir        57412


  8. Any Assistant MLA can present Bill before the Speaker by paying a fee of Rs 10000/- and obtain a serial number. On a Bill presented by the Speaker, the Assistant MLA can register his YES/NO at District Collector's office after paying a fee of Rs 100/- . The MLA too may register his YES/NO opinion without paying any fee.

  9. The Assistant MLA chosen will represent that citizen, and if the citizen has NO Assistant MLA, then the Primary MLA will represent the citizen.

  10. Example :
    1. suppose the population of constituency is X i.e. say 100,000
    2. Supose there are 3 Assistant MLAs, A, B and C, each having approval of say for example 5000, 15000 and 20000. And 60000 have no Assistant MLA.
    3. On a perticular Bill, say MLA votes YES, B votes YES while A and C vote NO.
    4. Then
      YES-votes = votes of MLA + Votes of B = 60000 + 15000 = 75000
      NO-votes = votes of A + Votes of C = 5000 + 20000 = 25000
    5. So
      YES-fraction = 75000/100000 = 0.75
      NO-fraction = 25000/100000 = 0.25


  11. The Speaker will thus calculate the YES-fractions and NO-fractions of ALL the constituencies, and will declare the Bill as passed of YES-fraction exceeds NO-fraction.

  12. Assistant MLA's salaries, limitations etc [please see the acts for the details]
  13. Explicit recall of MLA : If any Assistant MLA's approval count is over 50% and 5% more than residual approval count of the sitting MLA, then within 14 days, the Mayor will appoint that Assistant MLA the MLA, and the ex-MLA will become the Assistant MLA with approval count equal to his residual approval count.

    Example : Say a person is a MLA in a constituency of 100,000 voters. Say 3 individuals A, B and C have registered themselves as Assistant MLAs. Say 5000(5%) have approved A, 10000(10%) have approved B and 15000(15%) have approved C. So (residual) approval count of the sitting MLA will be 100% - 5% - 10% - 15% = 70%. Now say approval count of C increases to 55%. Then residual approval count of the MLA will fall to 100% - 5% - 10% - 55% = 100% - 70% = 30%. So C's count is now over 50% and over 5% more than that of the main MLA. So within 14 days, the Speaker will need to appoint C as MLA, and the existing MLA will become Assistant MLA with approval count of 30%.
    (Please note : the explicit recall would require a bill in Parliament).
     Thus citizens can EFFECTIVELY recall his Councilor by appointing an Assistant Councilor, and replacing him anytime if the need be.

     Thus citizens can EFFECTIVELY recall his MLA by appointing a Assistant MLA, and the citizen can EFFECTIVELY recall Assistant MLA as well by approving some other candidate as the Assistant MLA.


A ONLY drawback of this proposal --- Less confidentiality

     The ONLY drawback of the scheme is that the list of citizens who have opted a perticular person as their Assistant MLA is NOT fully confidential. It will be as confidential as bank statement or share market transactions.

     But how relevant is this drawback? Consider other tools of Democracy except election procedure such as filing a complaint against govt officer, or filing a PIL or collecting signatures of a protest petition or organizing a public protest. How confidential are these means? There is zero confidentiality for all practical purpose. In case of petition signatures have to be given. Basically, there is no confidentiality these days anyway.

     The drawback is minor with the advantages Recall procedures provide --- citizens' control over the representative and the reprsentation.


Draft to enact LM.08

     To enact the administrative procedure #LM.08 in a State, a law needs to be passed in the Assembly (NOT Parliament). For the the complete and EXACT Draft of the law, please click here.



Next : Letter to Corporator