All the 21 lok Sabha members of the State have utilised 72 per cent of their local Area Development (lAD) fund during their current stint 2009-14, said a social audit report by Youth for Social Development (YSD) here on Sunday.
It revealed that not a single MP in Odisha has achieved 100 per cent utilisation of lAD funds in the five-year period. Informing about the area of expenditure, YSD’s Bibhu Prasad Sahu said community halls were the most preferred projects funded by the MPs. A whopping 59.9 per cent of the lAD funds were spent for a total of 18,994 projects under the head ‘other public facilities.
According to the report, the best five MPs are Sambalpur MP Amarnath Pradhan (INC), Bhadrak MP Arjuna Charan Sethi (BJD), Brahmapur MP Sidhanta Mohapatra (BJD), Aska MP Nityananda Pradhan (BJD) and Puri MP Pinaki Mishra (BJD).
The MPs who spent the least amount are Koraput MP Jayaram Pangi (BJD), Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das (INC), Balangir’s Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo (BJD), Kendrapada MP Baijayant Panda (BJD) and Baleswar MP Srikant Kumar Jena.
Similarly, it revealed that the first time elected MPs spent more than the experienced MPs. It suggested that the MPs gave priority on the pressing challenges in basic necessary sectors like water, sanitation, public health, electricity and irrigation.
The political parties and candidates should publicly disclose MPlAD fund utilization in their election manifesto and should give in writing to the voters for 100 per cent efficient and better utilization, it suggested.