On December 23, 1993, the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, announced the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) in Parliament. The MPLAD Scheme enables Lok Sabha MPs as well as the Rajya Sabha to recommend works for creation of durable community assets based on locally-felt needs to be taken up in their constituencies, namely drinking water, education, public health, sanitation and roads etc. Initially, the MPLADS was under the control of Ministry of Rural Development. However, in October 1994, the scheme was transferred to Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The MPLADS is a plan scheme fully funded by Government of India and the annual fund entitlement per MP constituency is Rs 5 crore.
MLALADS/CDP
Following MPLADS, the Delhi government framed MLALADS in 1994-95 with an allocated fund of `1 crore for an MLA every year. The amount was increased to `1.40 crore and then to `2 crore in 2001. Later on, many State governments implemented the MLALADS in their States on similar lines. However, certain State Governments such as Andhra Pradesh implemented the same scheme under a different nomenclature known as Assembly Constituency Development Programme (ACDP) and later changed it to Constituency Development Programme (CDP). The AP Government included MLCs in addition to MLAs in the scheme in 2010-11.
Utilisation of funds and scope
An analysis of the reports of Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on funds utilisation of MPLADS reveals that MPs of Lok Sabha elected in 2014 have not utilised their funds as effectively as MPs who were elected in 2009. Unspent amount of MPLADS in 14th and 15th Lok Sabha was `176 crore and `551.25 crore respectively.
Coming to the present scenario, the total strength of MPs in 16th Lok Sabha as well as MPs of Raya Sabha is 790 and their total annual allocation works out to `3,950 crore. The total outlay for five years works out to `19,750 crore. Besides, there would be an additional allocation of `50 crore per annum for monitoring through independent agencies and for capacity building/ training imparted by GoI to State and district officials. As on date, the MLAs in our country are around 4,123. Assuming that MLALADS is operational in all the States with annual allocation of `2 crore per MLA, the total outlay sums up to `8,246 crore (`2 crore x 4,123) on a conservative basis.
Taking one full term of Assemblies into consideration, the total outlay works out to `41,230 crore in the country. Combining both MPLADS and MLALADS, the total outlay culminates into a colossal amount of `60,980 crore (tentative) which can be ploughed back for creation of durable community assets in the villages. This is all for the supply side of resources. Coming to the demand side, as per census 2011, there are 6,49,481 villages in the country, of which nearly 5,93,615 villages are inhabited. Hence, nearly six lakh villages require attention for infrastructure development to convert them into smart villages.
Way forward
Even though the scheme was operationalised in 1993-94 and guidelines have been revised from time to time, certain deficiencies are noticed in sanction as well as implementation process: The stipulation that all works under these schemes are to be done only through government agencies should be removed. Rural Development Department should assist in the processing, putting up all tenders’ notices and finalisation of bids.
The details should be displayed on its website for transparency from time to time. Recently, the Government of India took a decision to suspend MPLADS for two years (2020-21 & 2021-22) and `7,900 crore will be diverted to the national pool to fight Covid-19 pandemic. It is pertinent to mention that these funds are not perks meant for MPs. These funds are to be released directly to district authorities on priority basis for creation of durable community assets in their constituencies. In view of this, Government of India ought to reconsider its decision to suspend MPLADS for two years. (The author is former Assistant General Manager, Nabard, Hyderabad)
Govt should reconsider decision to suspend MPLADS
MPLADS funds are to be released directly to district authorities on priority to create durable community assets. In view of this, Government of India may reconsider their decision to suspend MPLADS for two years.