Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 5

With the Delhi Assembly election capturing the imagination of an entire country, a Punjab-based social activist has claimed that none of the seven BJP MPs elected to the Lok Sabha last year have spent “even a penny of the MPLAD funds allocated to them” last year.

According to Dinesh Chadha, an RTI activist and advocate, of the Rs 5 crore annual MPLAD fund, Rs 2.5 crore was released by the Centre to the seven MPs in September and October last year.

“However, till date none of Delhi MPs have spent any amount and the entire fund is lying unspent,” he claimed.

Carrying out an independent research of the data available on the government website related to the MPLAD scheme, Chadha said ideally the seven MPs should have spent the entire amount by now.

“Delhi MPs are busy with the Assembly election to help their party win. But they forgot the reason for which they have been elected by Delhi voters in the general election. None of them spent even a penny of their MPLAD fund for the welfare of the public,” he said.

Under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), each MP has the choice to suggest to the district collector for works of up to Rs 5 crore per annum to be taken up in his constituency.

According to reports based on data analysis of reports of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Fund Utilisation under the MPLAD Scheme last year, Lok Sabha MPs elected in 2014 had not utilised their funds as effectively as the MPs elected in 2004 and 2009.

The total amount of money not utilised by MPs elected to the 14th Lok Sabha (2004-09) was Rs 176 crore. This amount rose by 213.21 per cent during the next Lok Sabha term and MPs of the 15th Lok Sabha left Rs 551.25 crore unspent. In the 16th Lok Sabha, this amount further rose to Rs 1,734.42 crore as on March 27, 2019.

Besides the many implementation lapses, the constitutionality of the scheme has also been questioned by various scholars and experts.