But over 5K cr MPLADS funds remain unused
The Opposition has criticised the Centre for suspending the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme for two years, but an analysis of the scheme reveals that over the years the trend of Parliamentarians failing to use the fund optimally for their constituencies has been continuing.
As on March 4, 2020, the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation data shows the unspent amount to be Rs 5,275.24 crore.
In fact, the data shows that the unspent money under the MPLAD Scheme rose by a whopping 214.63 per cent between the 15th and the 16th Lok Sabha. And when compared with the 14th Lok Sabha, this rise is even greater — 885.47 per cent.
When taken Statewise collectively, Uttar Pradesh has an unspent amount of Rs 354.58 crore out of the total Rs 14,440 crore released between 2014 and 2019 while Assam has left only Rs 53 crore of the total amount of Rs 257 crore released.
Maharashtra has Rs 185 crore unspent from the total of Rs 774 crore released and Andhra Pradesh has an unspent amount of Rs 80 crore of the total amount of Rs 375crore released. If Karnataka has unspent fund of Rs 106.71 cr out of Rs 452 cr released, then Punjab has unspent amount of Rs 63.54 cr of the total amount of Rs 260 cr released.
Delhi has an unspent amount of Rs 41.38 crore of the total Rs 80 cr released while Madhya
Pradesh has Rs 112.68 cr. Kerala and Gujarat have Rs 72.38 cr and Rs 88.78 cr of unspent funds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who represents Varanasi constituency, has Rs 2.67crore unspent fund out of the Rs 15 crore released under this head while the data shows former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who represented Amethi, having Rs 4.58 crore unspent out of Rs 12.50 crore released under the MPLADS between 2014 and 2019.
Similarly, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has also an unspent amount of Rs 4.64 crore out of the Rs 17.50 crore released during the same period.
The Centre, however, has defended the unspent funds. It recently informed the Parliament that unspent balance is not an unused fund as it also includes the funds in pipeline for implementation of ongoing works.
Nevertheless, unspent funds have been in thousands of crores this last few years. Unspent amount under the scheme was Rs 4,103.97 crore on March 31, 2019; Rs 4,877.71 crore on March 31, 2018 and Rs 5,029.31 crore on March 31, 2017.
And as for the year 2020-21, an allocation of Rs 1,518 cr had already been made before the Centre suspended the scheme to keep its finances for the fight against Covid-19. Of this, an amount of Rs 1,432 cr was left unspent.
Prime Minister Modi has suspended the MPLADS fund for two years 2020-21 and 2021-22 to use a fund of Rs 7,880 crore thus saved to manage the challenges and adverse impact on the economy due to the spread of coronavirus outbreak.
There are 543 MPs in Lok Sabha and 245 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, which means 788 Parliamentarians in all. Each MP gets Rs 5 crore per annum as MPLAD and for two years, which works out to be nearly Rs 7,880 crores.
As per the latest information available with the Parliament secretariat, a total of 355 MPs of 779 MPs (of the total 788) have contributed a total of Rs 365 crore from their MPLADS towards tackling exigencies in India emerging from the effect of the pandemic.
Earlier this week, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had asked MPs to contribute Rs 1 crore from their MPLADS to the PM CARES Fund. They had also asked MPs to contribute a month’s salary to the PM CARES Fund.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had offered her entire MPLADS fund for the welfare of the people of Rae Bareli in fighting the coronavirus outbreak as per the requirement of the constituency. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi allocated Rs 2.66 crore from his MPLADS money to fight coronavirus in his constituency.
Balashowry, YSR Congress MP from Machlipatnam, has contributed the highest of Rs 4 crore of his MPLAD fund to the Andhra CM Relief Fund while Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has donated Rs 25 lakh of his MPLAD fund for purchasing sanitisers and masks in Mainpuri.