Functioning of the 13th Haryana Legislative Assembly

Elections for the 14^th Haryana Legislative Assembly will be held on October 21, 2019.  The 13^th Assembly held its sessions from November 2014 to September 2019.  This document analyses the working of the 13^th Assembly up to February 2019 (excluding the Budget 2017 and October 2017 sessions for which the bulletins were not available on the Assembly website).

The Assembly worked for 72 hours a year, on average

·   During a session, the Assembly is scheduled to meet for 4.5 hours a day, Monday to Thursday, and 3.5 hours on Friday.  The 13^th Assembly worked for 108% of its scheduled time, i.e., an average of 4 hours 39 minutes per day.

·   Between November 2014 and February 2019, the Assembly met for a total of 69 days, for 321 hours.  In the first four full years for which we have data, it averaged 16 days a year, meeting for 72 hours a year.

39% of starred questions received an oral answer

·   MLAs hold government accountable by asking questions.  A starred question receives an oral answer from the relevant minister.

·   Between November 2014 and February 2019, excluding the Budget 2017 and October 2017 sessions, 865 starred questions were listed for answers.  39% of these questions received an oral answer from the relevant minister.

·   After the reply from the minister in the Assembly, MLAs can ask supplementary questions.  878 supplementary questions were asked duirng the same period.  On average 2.6 supplementary questions were asked for each starred question orally answered.

48% MLAs were younger than 55 years

·   44% of MLAs were between the ages of 41 and 55 years, and 42% MLAs were between 56 and 70 years.

·   74% of MLAs had at least a bachelors degree, of which 18% had a post-graduate degree and 2% had a doctorate.

·   26% of MLAs were educated upto higher secondary level.