MPs may get Rs 3 cr more for development

From the next financial year, a Member of Parliament could get Rs 5 crore, from the present Rs 2 crore, annually for development works in his constituency, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Oct 6, 2008, 01:01:10 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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From the next financial year, a Member of Parliament could get Rs 5 crore annually for development works in his constituency. The reason for more than two-time hike, from the present Rs 2 crore, is high inflation.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which monitors the Rs 1,590-crore MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) Scheme, has sought the finance ministry’s approval to increase the annual allocation to Rs 5 crore for every Member of Parliament.

The proposal, mooted on the recommendation of a parliamentary standing committee on MPLAD scheme, has been sent to the finance ministry on the directions of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), a senior ministry functionary said. A decision might be taken later this month.

A number of MPs across political spectrum, barring the Left, have written to the PMO, seeking more funds. Spiralling input costs were coming in the way of development works, they have said.

“The price of raw material for constructing a road or building school has increased so much that we can’t carry out more than 30-35 per cent of the development work we used to five to seven years ago,” Prasanna Acharya, who heads the parliamentary panel, told Hindustan Times.

However, Communist Party of India’s Gurudas Dasgupta termed the move as unjustified.

“There is no reason to increase the MPs’ fund. There have been complaints of improper utilization. I don’t understand why the Planning Commission’s money is being given to MPs,” he said.

The Left parties are opposed to the scheme. They say development work is the job of executive and not of the legislative body members. They even demanded that the scheme be scrapped.

But, others favour more money. “There is no reason to suppose that constructive, positive and tangible assets will not be created with the enhanced amount,” said Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

The Bharatiya Janta Party was more cautious. A decision would be taken when the matter comes before Parliament, spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said.

Acharya said the scheme gave MPs an opportunity to provide succour to people. “Over 90 per cent utilisation of funds, even better than many central government schemes, shows that MPLAD scheme has worked well,” he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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