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Restore MPLADS so that MPs can use it for Covid management: BSP MP to PM
MPLADS, which has been suspended for the past two years by the government which wanted to utilise them for Covid management and healthcare facilities, is a scheme under which each MP can suggest to the district collector works to the tune of ₹5 crore per annum in their constituency
Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Member of Parliament from Amroha, UP, Kunwar Danish Ali has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately restore the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) so that lawmakers can utilise it to provide immediate medical relief to people in their respective constituencies amid the second wave of Covid-19.
MPLADS, which has been suspended for the past two years by the government which wanted to utilise them for Covid management and healthcare facilities, is a scheme under which each MP can suggest to the district collector works to the tune of ₹5 crore per annum in their constituency.
In a letter to the PM on Monday, Ali said that the situation in his constituency [arising out of the pandemic] was “serious and prompt action was needed to resolve the crisis”. “The disease has spread from village to village in my constituency. But there is a huge shortage of medicines, beds, oxygen and other medical facilities necessary to deal with this disease. There is hardly any medical support to save precious lives… The district administration is expressing its helplessness in providing relief to my people” he said.
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Ali, who had donated a month’s salary to PM CARES fund last year, said that no notable medical facility had been provided in his constituency. “Because of this, the people of my constituency are facing great difficulties in this crisis of pandemic and are witnessing untimely death due to non-availability of basic medical infrastructure,” he wrote.
Calling for decentralisation of healthcare provisions, he said that handing over MPLADS funds to public representatives who know their areas well would be an important step in enabling them to provide relief to the people of their respective constituencies.
“As the situation created by Covid is catastrophic, I request you to immediately release the MPLADS funds to all the MPs that have been withheld for two years so that I and all other MPs could try to save the lives by setting up oxygen plants and provide relief to the victims in our parliamentary constituencies” he wrote.
Reacting to Ali’s letter, BJP national spokesperson Gopal Agarwal said that government is committed to effective utilisation of all the funds. “The release of the MPLADS fund was suspended with an intent to use it for provision of healthcare services and that is how it is being utilised at the moment,” he said.
Hindustan Times also tried to reach out to Rao Inderjit, minister of state for programme implementation, who also holds the independent charge of piloting the MPLAD scheme, and he responded a day later.
Rao Inderjit responded on Wednesday that the budgetary outlay of MPLAD scheme for the last two years was allocated under finance ministry and these funds were already distributed among district authorities for health management.
“MPs can thereby re-prioritise their earlier recommended works under the same,” he said in his letter to Ali.
He added that expenditure for the completion of these recommended works is supposed to be met from these funds that have been made available with the district authorities. “This was done in pursuance of the decision of the Union cabinet taken on 6th April last year.” Inderjit wrote.
He also confirmed that there was no proposal of the government to immediately release any pending instalments of MPLADS as in March this yea.
Meanwhile, the district magistrate of Amroha, Ali’s constituency, claimed that the medical facilities there were at par with those of any other district. Umesh Mishra said 450 beds had been added for Covid-19 patients and there was no paucity of oxygen. He also shared that legislators gave their MLA fund for installation of oxygen plants and three of them have been installed by diverting corporate social responsibility funds.
Amroha district has a population of over 1.8 million and has 1,133 villages in six blocks and 601 gram panchayats. (With inputs from S Raju in Meerut)
