Assembly gives a miss to members attendance records

BHOPAL: Strange as it may sound, Madhya Pradesh Assembly doesn't keep an attendance record of its members, including Speaker Ishwardas Rohani and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to the House.
In response to an application moved under right to information (RTI) Act, seeking detailed attendance of Rohani, Chouhan and members year wise since 2008, Assembly public information officer has stated that they don't keep such a record."Thus it is impossible to furnish detail regarding it," the reply said.
"It is shocking that the assembly wasn't having attendance record of members of the 13th MP assembly. If they were not keeping the record on what ground the House was reimbursing travel, daily allowances and other perks to the MLAs. If such is the case, it means that the auditing isn't taking place," advocate Nityanand Mishra who moved the RTI application told TOI.
"People want to know what their MLAs were doing in the House. They have all the right to get this vital information. When Parliament is keeping such a record why isn't the MP Assembly not keeping such a vital detail," he quipped. Recently, reports regarding Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's thin attendance to Lok Sabha had been published widely in many newspapers, he said.
Under section 4 (1) (a) of the right to information Act 2005, all public authorities are suppose to maintain all their records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner that facilitates the RTI, Mishra said.
"I have already filed an appeal with appellant authority, assembly deputy secretary against public information officer's reply stating that the assembly doesn't keep record of its members' attendance.
A member said it is mandatory to keep the attendance record in the House given that a daily allowance of around Rs 500 is paid to a member to participate in the proceeding of the assembly.
MP assembly speaker Ishwardas Rohani said that he wasn't in the know of the information provided to the RTI applicant. "I will check it out and thereafter comment over it," he said.