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The Rediff Special

Every year, 790 members of Parliament are granted Rs 20 million each. The purpose of this largesse is to help them undertake developmental work in their respective constituencies.

Yet, seven years after the government launched the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, a large number of constituencies across the country continue to remain backward, thanks in part to the non-utilisation of these funds by MPs.

Senior Associate Editor George Iype finds out how our elected representatives are treating a scheme that was meant to usher in development and bring about economic growth.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been a member of Parliament from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, since 1991. Every year, the ministry of planning and programme implementation allocates him Rs 20 million to carry out developmental work in his constituency.

So how much of this money has the prime minister utilised for the benefit of the VVIP constituency? Since the launch of MPLADS in 1993, the government has granted Vajpayee Rs 80 million, of which he has utilised only Rs 46 million. The remaining Rs 34 million lie in government coffers, even as developmental projects in Lucknow remain paralysed due to lack of funds.

Vajpayee's aides explain that, as the country's chief executive, the prime minister is busy with matters concerning the state. He does not have the time to either visit his constituency or monitor its development.

Vajpayee is not alone on the list of VVIP MPs who have failed to utilise their MPLADS fund for the benefit of their constituencies. The list is rather long. It includes leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Home Minister L K Advani, Human Resource Development Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Vajpayee's entire council of ministers.

Actually, most MPs, irrespective of whichever party they belong to, forget about their constituencies once the election is over. Barely a handful of them have fully utilised their allocated resources.

Advani, for example, has been the MP from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, since 1991. Since then, he has used only Rs 57 million of the Rs 90 million that has been granted to him.

Sonia Gandhi too does not appear overly concerned about her high-profile constituency. Her office refused to tell rediff.com how much of the development funds she has spent in Amethi. But the ministry of planning and programme implementation -- the nodal agency for monitoring MPLADS -- says she has used Rs 6 million out of the Rs 20 million granted to her so far.

The government has released Rs 80 million for Amethi's development in the last seven years, but successive MPs have utilised only Rs 34 million so far.

HRD Minister Dr Joshi was allotted Rs 100 million for his constituency, Allahabad. He has utilised only Rs 47 million so far.

Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader Mayawati, who claims the Dalit community is her main concern, has received Rs 85 million for her Akbarpur constituency. Yet, so far, she has spent only Rs 48 million.

Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav was granted Rs 95 million for his constituency, Sambhal, of which Rs 49 million remains unused.

Since the formation of the Vajpayee government last year, the ministry has sanctioned MPs Rs 12.8 billion for the development of their constituencies (Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had allocated Rs 15.8 billion for MPLADS in his 1999-2000 Budget).

MPs, who often cry hoarse about the negligence of their respective constituencies by the government, fault the scheme. But PPI ministry officials claim the parliamentarians are hardly concerned about spearheading upliftment programmes in their constituencies.

They say many MPs have not cared to avail of the funds. Those who have done so have failed to submit project reports. Those have carried out developmental work have failed to submit bills. The net result: While the ministry has distributed Rs 12.8 billion, only 300 MPs have so far availed of funds. Meanwhile, the cash-starved government has to pay interest on the unutilised amount.

Where did the scheme -- heralded as the ray of hope for the economic regeneration of India's villages -- fail?

Maybe history has the answer.

The MPLADS, launched by the Congress government on December 23, 1993, was strongly opposed by then finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh. But then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao went ahead and announced the scheme, proclaiming it the first step towards true development as it 'reflected the conceptual departure in thinking with regard to development at the formulation and implementation level.'

The scheme allocated each MP Rs 10 million per year; the rationale being that MPs were often approached by their constituents for projects that involved relatively small amounts.

It was a non-starter from the beginning. Though the Rao government allocated Rs 7.89 billion for the scheme during the fiscal year 1995-96, more than 200 MPs did not use a single paise. The result: By the end of the financial year, nearly Rs 4 billion remained unutilised.

Despite this accumulation of unutilised funds, the MPs clamoured for more. So, in December 1998, the Vajpayee government doubled the fund from Rs 10 million to Rs 20 million.

Under the scheme, an MP can recommend to the district collector projects worth Rs 20 million annually to be undertaken in his/her constituency. Members of the Rajya Sabha are allowed to select any district in the states from which they are elected.

But the government also laid down strict guidelines for the scheme. Thus, it would not involve the purchase of any equipment or durable assets. Among the projects an MP can recommend are the construction of school buildings, hostels, libraries, roads, bridges and homes for the aged and handicapped.

MPs claim the scheme is riddled with excessive bureaucratic interference. But officials allege it is the neglect of their constituencies and instances of corruption that has ruined the scheme.

Congress MP Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi blames frequent elections and the many restrictions governing the utilisation of the funds for the scheme's failure. "Since the district magistrate assigns and coordinates developmental work, MPs have little role in the scheme though it has been made in our name."

Officials say the MPs are not keen on undertaking developmental activity in their constituencies because the scheme prevents them from handling the cash personally.

One official says the scheme has flopped because the government did not take into account the fact that, for an MP, his constituency means potential voters and not the community per se. There is political rivalry between the MPs and Opposition-ruled state governments. The latter often ask district collectors to prevent the former from carrying out developmental projects.

Despite the generous allocation of funds and the apathy in utilising the same, the MPs crave for more. A delegation of nearly a hundred MPs have put in a fresh proposal before the prime minister's office; they want the annual allocation to be doubled from Rs 20 million to Rs 40 million.

The proposal has made Minister of State for Planning and Programme Implementation Arun Shourie livid. His ministry has shot off letters to the PMO and the finance ministry pointing out instances of misuse, irregularities and corruption in the utilisation of MPLADS funds.

Shourie is not alone in the battle against MPLADS. His activist father H D Shourie has filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court, proposing the scheme be scrapped, since, he says, the constituency development fund is going down the drain.

PART II: 'The government does not want to anger MPs'

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