Telangana records lowest legislative activity among 5 poll-bound states: PRS

Telangana: The Telangana Assembly only met for 15 days on average each year in the last five years. A report by the PRS Legislative Research stated that this number of Assembly sessions is the shortest among the five states which will go to polls in November.

This means legislative activity in Telangana was relatively limited compared to the other four states: Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, and Rajasthan.

Decrease in legislative activity

Additionally, it’s worth noting that in all five states, the number of legislative sittings decreased over time. In Telangana, for instance, it began with 37 days of sittings in 2017 but steadily decreased, meeting for less than 20 days in the subsequent years.

The report also found that 48 per cent of bills were debated and passed by the Telangana Assembly within a day of their introduction. This means that almost half of the bills were not discussed in detail.

In terms of gender representation, Telangana has a relatively low proportion of women MLAs at 13 per cent. However, female members have a higher average attendance than male members in Telangana.

Ordinances issues

According to the report, between 2019 and 2023, Telangana issued 14 ordinances. Of these, six lapsed without being replaced by bills. The number of ordinances issued increased to 14 in 2021 when the Assembly met for 20 days throughout the year.

A session of an Assembly begins when the governor issues a summons, and ends when the governor issues a notice of prorogation (the end of a session). In Rajasthan and Telangana, sessions were adjourned but not prorogued, therefore lasting several months, with long breaks between sittings.

For instance, in 2021 and 2022, in Rajasthan, Assembly sessions that began in February ended in September. About 80 per cent of the sittings in each of these years were held in February and March, and the rest in September.