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John Brittas MP alleges Hindi imposition in MPLADS revised guidelines
The CPI(M) leader from Kerala alleged that the draft of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme’s (MPLADS) revised guideline ‘impairs’ the basic principles of cooperative federalism.
Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas on Friday alleged that the draft of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme’s (MPLADS) revised guideline, released on October 25, “enforces” Hindi language and “impairs” the basic principles of cooperative federalism.
In a letter to Union minister of state for statistics and programme implementation, planning and corporate affairs, Rao Inderjit Singh, the CPI(M) leader from Kerala also raised a number of other issues in relation to the draft guidelines.
“Para 3.23 of the new draft guidelines surreptitiously tries to introduce a new stipulation of erecting a plague at MPLADS project sites inscribing the details of work in Hindi language as well. No such condition was therer in the existing guidelines,” Brittas said
The CPI(M) leader was responding to the Centre’s request for feedback on the revised MPLADS draft guidelines.
He said that the “enforced directive” to depict details of work in the Hindi language in non-Hindi-speaking states will be considered an infringement of federal principles.
“The selection of languages to be used in plaques may be left to the wisdom of respective MPs,” he added.
He further pointed out that the new draft guidelines suggest that the annual entitlement fund of ₹5 crore will remain with the designated Central Nodal Agency (CNA) instead of the district authorities of the nodal districts of the concerned MPs. The required amount for the respective project will be directly credited to vendors’ accounts and the bank accounts of local authorities of nodal districts will be treated as pass-through accounts, according to the guideline.
The Rajya Sabha MP further mentioned that the draft guidelines suggest closing down all existing accounts of district authorities under the MPLADS and transferring all unspent amounts to the CNA. It is an attempt to infringe on the principles of decentralisation by seizing state authorities’ rights to have funds in their accounts, he added.
He further noted that the disbursement of fresh funds, according to new guidelines, will be based on presenting the utilisation certificates. Currently, funds are disbursed based on covering at least 80% of the expenditure of the previous fund. He also raised concerns over the use of funds for the “creation of movable public assets for government-owned and government-controlled institutions only”.
Referring to the revision on the amount to be recommended for works to societies, trusts and cooperative societies from ₹1 crore to ₹50 lakh, Brittas said there should be an upward revision in the suggested amount instead of crunching it down considering the spiralling inflation.
“MPLADS funding, as things stand, has been stagnating for a decade or more and it is up to the government to see whether any increase is needed as substantive erosion has happened on account of inflationary pressure,” he added demanding to provide details of work that can be undertaken under MPLADS to avoid confusion and contradictory views.
