MPLAD schemes: Detractors warn of eroded separation of powers in governance

Critics point out that rarely are questions asked and probes ordered on the utilisation of public money under these schemes, or when done, it is mostly to settle political scores around election time

Thirty-one years after it was launched, the relevance of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), and similar schemes that legislative assemblies, municipalities and panchayats initiated in its wake for their respective elected representatives, remains contested.

 

The detractors of these schemes contend that they erode the constitutional principle of separation of powers between the executive and the legislature, and that a robust mechanism to monitor the utilisation of public money under these schemes is absent. The supporters of these schemes, primarily elected representatives, argue that the schemes allow them to direct resources according to the needs of their