Only 35 Lok Sabha MPs Utilised Their Allocated Funds And It's A Worrying Trend Ahead Of General Elections

Most of the developmental works that people get to see are either carried out by the Municipal Councillor or the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) who are local representatives of the people.

But with general elections or the MP Wala Chunav as people call it, around the corner, how many people who would vote once more to elect their Member of Parliament (MP) in a fortnight from now know that their MPs also need to carry out developmental work?

The MPs get Rs 5 crore a year which comes to Rs 25 crore in five years provided the MP utilises the amount allocated in the last instalment.

pti

The amount of Rs 5 crore in a year is issued on half yearly basis with Rs 2.5 crore given in each half of the year with a special clause that amounts released in the previous instalment needs to be utilised.

But in last five years, only 35 MPs out of 543 MPs have been released Rs 25 crore which also means the except these 24 MPs, the other 519 MPs didn¡¯t utilise their fund since the release of fund instalment is subjected to the utilisation of the previous instalment (As on 10.12.2018).

It implies that the fund allotted to 519 MPs have not been utilised by the incumbent, who in most cases is the District Magistrate (DM) selected by the MP.

¡°Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation releases annual entitlement of Rs 5 crores of MPLAD fund in two equal instalments to the Nodal District Authority opted by Hon¡¯ble MPs. Utilization of released funds is to be done by respective District Authorities only on the basis of recommendations made by Hon¡¯ble MPs,¡± read parts of the answer given by DV Sadananda Gowda, the Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation in the Parliament in December 2018.

No MPR, no release of next instalment

The district authority has to carry out the development work on the recommendation of the MP and in accordance to the spending of the fund, the district authority has to issue Monthly Progress Report (MPR) to the Centre as well as the MP. The absence of this report may lead to the non-issuance of the next instalment.

¡°Para 6.4 (viii) of the Guidelines on MPLADS stipulates that the Nodal District Authority should submit Monthly Progress Report (MPR) to Government of India, State Government / UT Administration and the MP concerned for each MP separately on or before the 10th of the succeeding month,¡± reads the answer tabled by Vijay Goel, the Minister of state in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State In Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in 2017.

BCCL

¡°The utilization certificate is a statement by the District Authority that the funds have been utilized as per the scheme guidelines and facilitates the release of further funds under the MPLAD scheme. There have been delays in submission of utilization certificates by District Authorities on account of various reasons and this has been in discussion in several meetings related with MPLAD Scheme,¡± the minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation DV Sadananda Gowda added in next part of his answer tabled in the Parliament.

WB, UP, and MP among better performers with 10, 6 and 4 MPs each respectively

Imagine the extent of the poor show by the MPs that UP and MP are the better performers as six and four MPs from a total of 80 and 20 MPs only have been allotted their full amount of fund.

With 10 MPs out of 42, West Bengal is the top performing state in regards of MPs spending their fund. Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, MP, Kanpur, Dr Nepal Singh, MP, Rampur, Devendra Alias Bhole, MP Akbarpur and Rajesh Verma, MP, Sitapur are four MPs from Uttar Pradesh out of 80 MPs who have been allotted their full amount of MPLAD fund. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, MP, Indore, Laxmi Narayan Yadav, MP, Sagar, Manhor Untwal, MP, Dewas and Prahlad Singh Patel, MP, Damoh are four MPs from Madhya Pradesh who were allocated the full amount of their funds.

reuters

In other states, Punjab (3), Assam, Haryana, Gujarat have two MPs each whereas states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Nagaland and Rajasthan have one MP each in the list.

MPs from poorer states fare badly

With five and four MPs from UP and Madhya Pradesh respectively, one each from states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and none from states such Jharkhand and Odisha ¨C it has been learnt that even MPs from the poorer states which require infrastructure and other works in order to help the people, haven¡¯t spent their fund which can be attributed several factors.

The MPs from the richer states such as Punjab (3), Haryana (2), Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu didn¡¯t do any better either.

With general elections around the corner, India will vote once more to elect members of its Parliament and this time around, India should elect people who not only raise their voice in the Parliament but also utilises the money given to him for people good because it's people's money after all and it needs to be utilised for people's good.