Negative markings for criminal record had a direct bearing on the ranking of some of the MLAs in the MLA Report Card published by the Praja Foundation. While Congress MLA Ashok Jadhav improved his ranking to five, MNS MLA Mangesh Sangle witnessed a sharp drop in his ranking this year.
Praja officials said that for MLAs with criminal records, there is a system of negative marking in its ratings. In addition to negative markings for FIRs registered against MLAs as declared in their affidavits, this year Praja had assigned further negative points for those against whom new FIRs were filed after they got elected and on registered chargesheets.
Mr Sangle, who was the topper in 2010 and ranked number two last year, has dropped down to number 20 this year. It was mostly the result of the chargesheet filed by the police against him this year. “Chargesheets are filed when the police believes that they have circumstantial evidence to nail the accused of the crime,” said a Praja official.
In the same way, Mr Jadhav, who was ranked number 22 last year, improved his ranking to 5 in 2013, as all criminal charges against him were dropped during the review year.
“The recent Supreme Court ruling that an elected representative convicted of a crime cannot continue in office, even if they appeal to the higher court of law, lends further credibility to our system,” said Nitai Mehta, founder trustee of foundation.