13 Odisha MPs yet to spend single paisa: Report

An audit report on the performances of Odisha MPs, released by the Youth for Social Development (YSD) at a seminar here on Monday, revealed that the elected representatives had performed very dismally in their first year in office.

This social audit drew a map of each of 21 MPs' performance with regard to participation in parliament affairs, utilisation of MPlAD funds and discharge of responsibilities and maintaining of transparency to effect development in their respective constituencies, said Bibhu Prasad Sahu of YSD. Sahu said the performance of the MPs was studied based on secondary data available on Government websites and MPlAD fund utilisations as on March 31, 2015.

The study revealed that the individual performance of 18 MPs has remained very poor in the first year of the 16th lok Sabha while only three MPs have been able to score 30 marks out of a yardstick of 100 and 3 others around 17 marks individually.

Cuttack MP Bhatruhari Mahtab has secured the highest 36 marks followed by Kalikesh N Singh Deo (Balangir) and RK Jena (Baleswar). The three lowest performers are Jual Oram (Sundargarah), Rama Chandra Hansdah (Mayurbhanj) and Sidhanta Mahapatra (Brahmapur), who could score around 17 marks individually.

On MPlAD fund utilisation front, Bhubaneswar MP Dr PK Patsani spent the highest amount of `1.3 crore, which accounts for 25.74 per cent of his available MPlAD funds of `5.05 crore. He is followed by Kalikesh N Singh Deo (`0.86 crore) and Bhadrak MP Arjun Charan Sethi (`0.82 crore). Similarly, Tathagata Satapathy (Dhenkanal), Arka Keshari Deo (Kalahandi) and Kulamani Samal (Jagatsinghpur) are the three lowest performers on this front. They have spent `0.1 crore, `0.3 crore and `0.21 crore, respectively.

As many as 13 MPs have not spent a single paisa in their respective constituencies, the study revealed. Significantly, expenditure on "other public facilities" is the highest sector where MPs spent 35.46 per cent of their funds followed by 24.07% in education sector and 23.31 per cent for construction of roads, pathways and bridges. 

On the other hand, the expenditure on most important sectors like drinking water (4.16%), health and family welfare (3.21%), irrigation (3.40%), electricity (2.95%) and sanitation and public health (1.57%) remains to be the least priority of the MPs of the State.

Similarly, they spent 60.19 per cent on construction of community, 10.76% on building for cultural activities, 9.54% on 'other public works not covered elsewhere' and 7.52 per cent on 'construction of public libraries and reading rooms'. Shockingly, some important sectors like ‘common work sheds for artisans’ saw 0.91 per cent and purchase of motor boats for flood and cyclone-prone areas 0.21 per cent and public parks 0.93%.

The study revealed that MPs from central Odisha performed better, in both utilisation and overall performance, compared to other regions. Similarly, MPs from both north and west Odisha performed well in the overall performance, but their utilisation of MPlAD funds were quite different and varied. 

Unfortunately, South Odisha MPs remain the worst performers in regard to utilisation of their respective MPlAD funds, besides, their overall performance appears to be poor even though the south Odisha is the poorest region in the State, the study asserts. 

People, therefore, need to introspect carefully before they elect their leaders, the YSD remarked.