Nabarangpur.
While the UPA government is all set to complete two years, Congress MP from Nabarangpur in Odisha, Pradeep Majhi has set a new record. The first-timer Lok Sabha MP asked 501 questions in two years.
A study by Hush Puppies revealed that the people of India elected 61 MPs in the 25-40 age group, to the 15th Lok Sabha in May 2009. Who form over 11 per cent of the total strength of the house. Going by the statistics of their attendance in the house, the number of questions they asked, the debates they participated in, and the private member’s bills they introduced, their performance has been clearly below average.
Ironically, Rahul Gandhi, who is considered as the youth icon in the country, neither participated in any Parliamentary debate nor asked any question. His attendance was a meagre 47 per cent. His busy and hectic schedule across the country did not help him to focus on Parliamentary proceedings.
Pradeep Majhi, who hails from Odisha's tribal district - Nabarangpur, took part in five debates with an attendance rate of 66 percent. He asked 501 questions - a record in 15th Lok Sabha so far. He focuses on social issues, tribal development, human rights issue and infrastructure development. His campaigns against the Vedanta Mining Project in Niyamgiri Hills and MGNREGS scam in Nabarangpur, earned him accolades.
As the MP from Nabarangpur, a predominantly tribal area, he has taken up tribal rights issues both inside and outside Parliament. In the recent Budget session, Majhi took up the issue of the demand of the Konda Reddy community of Orissa to be recognised as a scheduled tribe. “It is strange that the community should have ST status just across the border in Andhra Pradesh and despite being a primitive tribe, continue to wait for it in Orissa,” he says. According to Majhi, not meeting the demand is one of the reasons for a large number of youth from this tribe becoming Naxalites.
Majhi played an important role in bringing to focus the opposition of the tribal communities to the Vedanta mining project in Niyamgiri Hills. Indiscriminate mining is an issue that he has been campaigning against, and was looking forward to participating in a discussion on it scheduled towards the end of the Budget session this year. Majhi had even managed to get himself listed as the third speaker on the issue. However, the house adjourned after some disruption, and the discussion did not happen. “It was very disappointing for me,”hesays.
Majhi uses zero hour to raise issues in Orissa because, he says, “there are only two or three people who do it”. He admits that his attendance in the Lok Sabha took a hit because of the organisational elections of the Youth Congress of which he is the president in Orissa. “The last session was anyway washed out. I have tried to make up for the loss in the Budget session,” he says.
Pradeep Majhi currently holds the post of Orissa Pradesh Youth Congress President. It's heartening to see that despite holding such an important post, Mr. Majhi managed to discharge his duties as a Lok Sabha MP whenever he got a chance.
