Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Is Legislative Council necessary?' that was published in Newsband

Is Legislative Council necessary?

Is there a need of a second chamber in States? Is there was any real benefit in having a Legislative Council? If yes, then all States in the country should have a second chamber.

There are only seven such Councils. Odisha’s State Cabinet has approved a 49-member Legislative Council. The process of creating an Upper House is lengthy. The State Assembly has to pass a resolution. Parliament has to enact a law to create it.

An Upper House provides a forum for academicians and intellectuals. This forum is likely to be used to accommodate party functionaries who fail to get elected.

Today, legislatures draw their talent both from the grassroots level and the higher echelons of learning. There are enough numbers of doctors, teachers and other professionals in most political parties today.

There are disadvantages too. Unless there are specific functions of upper houses in the states, they may be used for ' rehabilitation ' of the political leaders. Councils may serve as a back-door entry to live a luxurious life without any accountability and responsibility. Hence all legislative councils should be abolished. Their sole purpose is to give administrative powers to persons who are rejected by the people.

Rather than such absurd councils, the need of the hour is to set up a bench which could evaluate and testify all the projects if they are being carried out without any corruption and to ensure that the work is not restricted on paper only but on the ground reality as well. However, it is no wonder that politicians are more interested in keep pushing this country behind in place of taking it forward and in addition to that, citizens are also not at all interested in having better basic amenities like pot hole free roads, good infrastructure etc.

What are the advantages? If there is a legislative council with necessary power to evaluate the laws passed in the assembly, certainly it will be a check on laws passed on the assembly by parties which are not conducive to the welfare of the people. If formed, a legislative council should not be teethless just to affix the rubber stamp for the laws created by the assembly without constructive criticisms and discussions. The party members must not be eligible to become members in such council and only members with no party affiliation will give neutral analysis of legislative laws that will be brought to the floor. But dummy councils containing party people is useless and better to shun with it.