Maharashtra 14th Assembly Report: 70% Of Bills Passed In 5 Days Or Less, Highlighting Focus On Education And Local Governance

Mumbai: In the 14th Maharashtra Assembly, 70% of the bills were passed in five days or less. According to an analysis by PRS Legislative, most bills passed in five years, were related to local governance and education.

As the elections for 15th Maharashtra Assembly are scheduled to be held on November 20, PRS Legislative Research, an independent research institute, has released its analysis report examining the work of the 14th Maharashtra Assembly. The report said that while the assembly saw three chief ministers, the speaker post was vacant for over a year and more than 120 MLAs faced disqualification in five years.

14th Maharashtra Assembly Timeline

The 14th assembly met for only 27 days a year on average in the last five years with sittings lasting for seven hours on average. The Maharashtra assembly met for 136 days between November 2019 and July 2024, which was more than the national average sittings of 27 state legislatures. The longest sitting was 15 hours long held on March 14, 2023 when state budget was discussed.

While 70% of the bills in the 14th assembly were passed in five days or less, a third of the bills were passed in both the houses within a day of introduction. Out of all the bills passed, 50% of them were related to education or local governance. 33 bills setting up private universities, or altering provisions related to public universities were passed. 24 bills dealing with urban local bodies like municipal corporations, municipal councils, etc. were also passed.

Key bills passed by the sssembly include the Shakti Bill, 2020 which enhanced punishments for certain crimes against women and children, three Bills to amend the farm laws passed by the Centre and a bill to provide 10% reservation to the Maratha community. While 20 Private Members’ Bills were introduced in five years by 10 MLAs, none were introduced in the assembly.

While the 14th assembly saw an average of 83% attendance in sittings, attendance remained 75% in all years with the highest in 2019 at 91%. About 65% of the questions asked in the assembly were to eight departments including Urban Development, Home, Revenue and Forests, Industry, Energy and Labour, Health, Public Works, Rural Development and the School Education and Sports department.

After Nana Patole resigned from the speaker’s post in February 2021, the assembly functioned without a speaker for over a year, with the deputy speaker presiding. Rahul Narwekar was elected as the new speaker in July 2022 after a change in government.

“The rules of procedure of the assembly require the governor to notify the election of the speaker, with voting held by secret ballot. In practice, this is done in consultation with the chief minister. In December 2021, the rules of procedure were amended to allow voice voting to elect the speaker. The governor denied permission to hold elections for the speaker’s position during the March 2022 session,” read the report.