When it comes to getting development work done in their constituencies, it seems, our Members of Parliament (MPs) develop cold feet or do not get adequate support from district authorities.
According to a written reply tabled in Parliament last week, no fund under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme has been released since 2009-10 for some prominent Members of Parliament like Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Planning and Science and Technology Ashwini Kumar, senior Congress leaders Janardhan Dwivedi and Karan Singh since 2009-10, though they was allocated Rs 14 crore each.
In the cases of certain MPs, both from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha cutting across party lines, the funds released are sometime less than half of what was allocated, as they have either failed to utilise the earlier allocated funds or district authorities have failed to furnish the relevant documents to enable the nodal Central agency — the department of Programme Implementation in this case — to release the funds.
BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani was released 46.5 per cent of the total fund allocated to him under MPLAD since 2009-10, data showed.
Officials said a big reason behind this could be that some work might have been sanctioned by the MP, but district officials have not furnished completion certificates.
Under the MPLAD scheme, a sum of Rs 5 crore is released to every MP each year to recommend development work in their constituencies, particularly for creation of durable community assets. The fund is released in two installments.
The first installment of Rs 2.5 crore is released immediately at the time of constitution of the Lok Sabha or election of a Rajya Sabha member. In the remaining years, the first installment (of Rs 2.5 crore) is released subject to the release of second installment of the previous year and also subject to the furnishing a provisional completion certificate.
In other words, if any Member of Parliament has not fully utilised his first installment or has not furnished utilisation certificate covering at least 80 per cent expenditure of the first installment of the previous year, his next installment is withheld.
Lok Sabha MPs are free to recommend works within their constituencies, while those in the Rajya Sabha can do so within the state from where they are elected.
However, officials from the department of programme implementation explained the delay in releasing funds was due to the failure of getting utilisation certificate from district authorities.
Many a times, district officials delay implementation of a work sanctioned by an MP, which leads to delay in project completion and subsequent delay in release of funds.
The point was also highlighted by Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Srikant Jena while furnishing a written reply to a question in Parliament.
“As on date, works worth Rs 3,200-3,300 crore are in progress, including those carried from the past, out of total budget of around Rs 4,000 crore every year, and one reason for this is lack of coordination between MPs and the local administration,” a senior official from the department of programme implementation said. Nevertheless, several new provisions have been included under the programme to enable MPs undertake development work.
“We now allow MPs to spend MPLAD funds for construction of train halts, fund MGNREGA, etc,” the official said.
