Maharashtra  MPs raised more questions  in the Loksabha

Maharashtra MPs average is three times higher than the national average

A total of 6,944 questions were asked during the five sessions of the 17th Lok Sabha. The number of questions on health is the highest.

During the five sessions of the 17th Lok Sabha, 48 MPs from Maharashtra have raised 6,944 questions. Elected members from Maharashtra constitute 9% of the house strength, yet they have raised 29% of the total questions. According to the report, out of the ten ministry departments identified for the study,  the highest number of 507 questions were related to health.

Sampark, a Mumbai based NGO working in the field of Public Interest Advocacy, recently published its report reviewing the performance of the MPs representing Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha. The report analyzes the information regarding starred and unstarred questions asked in 5 sessions of Lok Sabha from May 2019 to March 2021. During the last five sessions, MPs from Maharashtra asked an average of 154 questions. At the national level, the average is only 49 questions. This means that the average of the questions raised by Maharashtra MPs is three times higher than the national average.

Out of the total 23,979 questions asked during the five sessions, a total of 5,946 questions were asked by 38 male MPs and  998 questions by seven female MPs from Maharashtra. Considering the party-wise performance, BJP with 24 MPs asked 3,116 questions, Shiv Sena with 17 MPs asked 2,539 questions, NCP’s four MPs asked 959 questions, and Suresh alias Balu Dhanorkar of Chandrapur, the only Congress MP, has raised  123 questions.  MIM’s MP from Aurangabad Imtiaz Jalil presented 179 questions, while Amravati’s independent MP Navneet Rana brought 28 questions.

155 questions regarding Women and Child development were raised. Most of these questions were posed by Vinayak Raut. 108 questions related to Social Justice were asked. Out of these, Ashok Nete, Sudhakar Sringare and Imtiaz Jalil asked 11, 7 and 6 questions respectively. 223 questions came up about Drinking Water and Sanitation, of which, Dhairyashil Mane, Hemant Patil and Sudhakar Sringare asked 12, 11 and 10 questions respectively. Out of 140 questions asked about Rural Development, Shrikant Shinde and question related to this issue came up. 15 MPs 1 question each.  Although the number of tribal population is significant in 15 constituencies, only 62 Qs related to this
issue came up. 15 MPs raised one question each.

Out of 254 questions asked about human resource development, Supriya Sule, Sunil Tatkare and Sudhakar Sringare asked 15, 14 and 13 respectively. There were 418 questions regarding agriculture and farmers’ development.  All the three Shiv Sena MPs Shrirang Barne, Sanjay Mandlik and Gajanan Kirtikar asked 27, 26 and 23 questions respectively. MPs from Maharashtra raised 209 questions related to Housing and Urban development and 78 related to Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. Question Hour is an important tool to read the questions facing the people. It is clear from Sampark’s report that the MPs from Maharashtra are at the forefront in initiating discussions using tools like the Question hour and others.
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Supriya Sule leads
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) lawmaker Supriya Sule has been most active in raising various issues with 313 questions while Dr Jayasiddeshwar Mahaswami, MP from Solapur, presented the lowest number of 20 questions.
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Performance of other women MPs
Dr Heena Gavit – 240
Dr Pritam Munde – 157
Poonam Mahajan – 130
Bharati Pavar – 109
Navneet Rana – 28
Bhavana Gawali – 21
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240 questions from Nandurbar

There were a total of 900 questions from Mumbai, which has the highest HDI of 0.841, (higher than 0.752, the state average), whereas the tribal-dominated Nandurbar, with the lowest HDI (0.604) in the entire state had 240 questions.
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Mrunalini Jog, Project Head, Sampark
mrunalini@sampark.net.in

Click here to download the report