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Modi’s Ministers fail to spend constituency fund
As the Narendra Modi-led NDA government is busy organising rallies and public meetings across the nation bragging about its achievements in the past one year, a reality check brings us some grim facts. Crores of rupees have been spent on publicity campaigns and pet projects, including ‘Make in India’ and ‘Swachh Bharat’, but most of the ministers in Modi Cabinet have not spent even a single rupee to develop their constituencies.
New Delhi: As the Narendra Modi-led NDA government is busy organising rallies and public meetings across the nation bragging about its achievements in the past one year, a reality check brings us some grim facts. Crores of rupees have been spent on publicity campaigns and pet projects, including ‘Make in India’ and ‘Swachh Bharat’, but most of the ministers in Modi Cabinet have not spent even a single rupee to develop their constituencies.
Even though the Prime Minister has been asking the MPs and ministers to be available to the people in their constituencies and set aside Rs 5 crore for the development of each constituency annually, not a single minister bothered to spend the same in their respective constituencies, according to data available.
Most ministers of the government figure in the list of members of parliament (MPs) who have not yet utilised their MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds, reveals an analysis of the data (until May 15, 2015) from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Among those who have thus far ignored their MPLADS funds iinclude Home Minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar (Bangalore South), Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra (Deoria) and Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati (Jhansi). Others who boast zero-spending include Congress President Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), Veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi (Kanpur) and Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav (Azamgarh). Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi has utilised only 16 percent of the Rs 5 crore.
The present Lok Sabha has 281 members from the BJP and 44 from the Congress, the main Opposition party. With 52 MPs, Uttar Pradesh tops the list of States with zero use of MPLAD money, followed by Maharashtra and Bihar. Parliamentarians from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal do better with most recommending works under the scheme.
Drinking water, sanitation, electricity, roads, community shelters - these are the kind of things MPs can spend their annual fund on. Delivered in tranches of Rs 2.5 crore, the MPLADs money is meant to fund things that fall in between the administrative cracks. If the money is not spent in one year, it can be spent during another.
