Plea in LS for raising MPLAD fund to Rs 24 crore

A BJP member today made a strong plea in the Lok Sabha for raising the funds under the MPLAD scheme to Rs 24 crore from the current Rs 5 crore.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Chhedi Paswan said this would help the members to work more for their constituencies.
He said that an MLA gets Rs two crore for development work in his constituency, while the MPs' constituency is six times bigger.
BJP member Shyama Charan Gupta said Election Commission
should count poll expenses of a candidate from the day his name is announced by his party and not from the day it announces the election schedule, as is the practice now.

In an apparent reference to the upcoming UP assembly polls for which parties like SP and BSP have declared several candidates, he said they have been canvassing for votes for almost a year ahead of the polls and spending a lot of money whose account has not been kept by the EC.

Such a practice also discourages the poor from fighting elections, he said.
Sushmita Dev (Cong) objected to an announcement by the official agency tasked with updating citizenship roll in Assam that Bengali-speaking people will not be listed as original inhabitants.
It will lead to two classes of citizens, she said, adding that Bengali-speaking people have been staying in Assam since 19th century.

Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) accused the Centre of trying to reduce subsidy on kerosene oil available under the PDS and said it should increase PDS quota of oil and reduce its price as well as that of LPG cylinder.
Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) said since 2016 was the centenary year of Biju Patnaik, a major road in New Delhi, under the NDMC, be named after him.
Anto Anthony (Congress) demanded that the Aranmula village in Pathanamthitta constituency be declared as a heritage village, while Ranjeet Ranjan (Cong) said over 1700 villages have been affected by floods in Bihar.