Before every election, the Bharatiya Janata Party trots out its riff of development and good governance. It did so before the general elections and is doing it again in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly polls. But, no matter its promises, it is the party’s follow-up on the pledges that appears problematic.According to data released by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, not one of the seven BJP MPs from the capital have spent a paisa of the funds provided to them for their constituencies’ development. This means that a total of Rs 17.5 crore that could have been used for anything from building roads to improving schools and colleges in Delhi is therefore lying unutilised.The MP Local Area Development Scheme was introduced in 1993 to provide a chance to every parliamentarian to suggest works in their constituency to the tune of Rs 5 crore every year.A look at the national average of the funds used up under the scheme shows that the MPs from Delhi are not exactly outliers. Out of the Rs 1,246 crore made available to parliamentarians across the country (BJP has 281 MPs in the current parliament), only Rs 22 crore (or a meagre 1.76%) was spent till January 1.

Even this figure is reached because of the relative prudence shown by the MPs of some states. Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh lead the pack among these, with over 4% utilisation of their funds. Following them in the list are Bihar (3.5%), Gujarat (3.2%), Chhattisgarh (2.3%), and Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (2%).Most others have not begun to use the resources. Eighteen of the 29 states, in fact, display zero or negligible utilisation of funds in the current financial year, according to the official data. Add to this the MPs from the seven union territories, none of whom has spent anything. Even the MPs from India’s newest state, Telangana, could only run through 0.2% of their allocated development funds.These figures are distressing even when compared to other election years. In the year 2009-2010, more than Rs 1,500 crore was released by the government, out of which 70% or Rs 1,073 crore was utilised by the MPs during the course of the year.

Also, as clear from the above chart, the 15th Lok Sabha normally utilised more than 70% of its allocated funds every year. Over its five-year term, it spent more than 88% of its funds, though the specific data for 2013-2014 is not available. That gives the current parliamentarians – with their present spending of about 1.8% – indeed a very long distance to make up.