State Assemblies Sittings

In News: PRS Legislative Research, a New Delhi-based think tank released its study on the functioning of State Assemblies for 2021.

Findings

• Kerala, which slipped to the eighth slot in holding the sittings of the State Assembly during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, got back to the first place in 2021, with its House sitting for 61 days, the highest for any State.
• Despite enjoying the record of having the highest number of sittings during 2021 for any State legislature, Kerala had promulgated 144 ordinances, also the highest in the country last year.
• Odisha followed Kerala with 43 sitting days; Karnataka – 40 and Tamil Nadu – 34 days.
• Of the 28 State Assemblies and one Union Territory’s legislature, 17 met for less than 20 days.
• Of them, five — Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Delhi — met for less than 10 days.

Ordinance

• As for the ordinance route, which should be, according to the Supreme Court, used under exceptional circumstances, 21 out of 28 States promulgated ordinances last year.
• Andhra Pradesh with 20 ordinances and Maharashtra with 15 followed Kerala, wherein Bills replacing 33 ordinances became Acts.

Passage of Bills

• A perusal of the manner of adoption of Bills by the State Assemblies would reveal that 44% of the Bills adopted by 28 State Assemblies were passed within a day of their introduction.
• Gujarat, West Bengal, Punjab and Bihar were among the eight States which passed all Bills on the day of introduction.
• On the contrary, five States — Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Odisha and Rajasthan — took more than five days to pass a majority of their Bills.
• In Kerala, 94% of the Bills were passed after at least five days of their introduction in the legislature. In respect of Meghalaya, it was 80% and in the case of Karnataka, 70%.

Subjects Covered

• Of the subjects covered by the Bills passed in 2021, education accounted for 21% followed by taxation – 12%, local government – 10%, and land and law and order – 4% each.

Source: The Hindu