How To Spend It

IN Mayawati’s Uttar Pradesh, only the Prime Minister wields enough clout to have his way. Anyone else can hope to be a slow-starter at best. That is possibly why Amethi MP Sonia Gandhi’s MPLAD projects — even mundane plans like installing hand-pumps, laying sewer lines, creating an asphalt road network and electrifying villages — are on the backburner. The top priority for any official worth his job is the Ambedkar Gram Vikas Yojana.

Take the open drain Sonia wanted constructed in front of the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital on the Munshiganj-Amethi road. On January 16 this year, the request was forwarded to the DM of Sultanpur (Amethi came under the jurisdiction of both Sultanpur and Rae Bareilly districts till the separate district of Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar was created in May) with the necessary paperwork and intimation of a Rs 20-lakh grant. Till July, only a trench had been dug. It was only after a woman tragically lost her life there that work was accelerated. The new DM, M P Agarwal, has set a September-end deadline for the project.

There are plenty of such examples. While Agarwal attributes earlier delays to the confusion caused by two separate district administrations, he acknowledges he has received no response from the Sultanpur DM, who was supposed to release MPLAD funds for six computers Sonia wanted set up at block headquarters.

‘‘We can only work quietly,’’ says Bholanath Tripathi, a prominent member of the core team looking after Sonia Gandhi’s political interests in the constituency. ‘‘We cannot raise a storm. Otherwise, we further alienate these officials.’’

When pointed out that official figures indicated, the release of funds by the MP herself has been sluggish occasionally, Tripathi explains, ‘‘They need a utilisation certificate before we can ask for more money. How do we manufacture those certificates if they proceed so slowly?’’

Memories linger of those days when Rajiv Gandhi made Amethi the focal point for mammoth development schemes. Industries like Indo-Gulf Fertiliser, the BHEL unit at Jagdishpur, the Gouriganj factory of ACC Cement and the UP Agro Paper Mill, Samrat Bicycles, Usha Rectifier have either closed down or are on the verge of closure. Locals recall laughing at Sam Pitroda, but he was instrumental in the mushrooming of PCOs in Amethi. It is another story that some of the Congress panchayat pradhans later installed the PCO phones in their homes for their personal use. They benefited by having to pay reduced bills because a PCO-owner gets a 25 per cent commission.

But the return of the Gandhi family to Amethi in 1999 still means a lot to the locals. In Gouriganj, Ramsevak and Niaz Ahmed believe that the Congress will be back in power and Sonia raj will ensure Amethi’s development. Dal Bahadur Singh is an illiterate tiller in Musafirkhana. He, too, is politically aware and believes that the Mayawati government is putting up roadblocks. ‘‘Otherwise Sonia would have delivered much more. This is hostile environment for her,’’ he says.

Busy convention centre for a sleepy city

Diptosh Majumdar in Lucknow

CIVIC problems like overflowing drains, too few public lavatories, ramshackle primary school buildings or narrow roads taken over by hawkers do not interest him anymore. For the past four years, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is spending every rupee from his MPLAD to build a mammoth convention centre in his constituency, Lucknow.

He has already released Rs 7 crore for this single project. DM Navneet Sehgal claims another Rs 2 crore is on the way. A host of Rajya Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh — including Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra, Sunil Shastri, Balbir Singh Punj, Dinanath Mishra and even Lalit Suri — are pitching in from their respective MPLAD funds. Spearheading the 25-acre project is Uttar Pradesh’s Urban Development Minister and the PM’s constituency manager, Lalji Tandon.

It’s yet unclear, though, why the massive convention centre is being built. Initially, it was expected to host academic and medical seminars and symposia. Now, critics snigger that once the construction ends, the Sangh Parivar will stop spending money on tents.

But even critics have been caught off-guard by the authorities’ latest decision: The main 1400-seater convention hall will not be built in the first phase. Reason: There is not enough money.

So, next year, Vajpayee will inaugurate a 400-seat auditorium, another 200-seat one, an open-air theatre, a couple of banquet halls and a gentle concrete gradient, earmarked for the 1400-capacity auditorium.

There’s controversy, also, over the money spent. The DM says the abbreviated centre costs Rs 21.2 crore. Project manager Ashok Kumar estimates it at Rs 25 crore. Either way, Tandon is confident, ‘‘funds will never be a problem’’.

But is Lucknow really a convention city? ‘‘We shall make it one,’’ says Tandon. Adds Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Medical University V-C Mahendra Bhandari, ‘‘The 1400-seater auditorium will prevent Jaipur from hijacking conventions.’’ But Jaipur has several five-star hotels and heritage resorts. ‘‘These will come up gradually in Lucknow,’’ claims Bhandari.

What he doesn’t mention is that his university last hosted a convention in 1999. Lucknow has just one five-star hotel, and tourist arrival is stagnant. Read this in combination with the fact that the city has just five government hospitals. The UP government spends Rs 100 per annum per person on education and Rs 400 per annum per person on health. Eighty per cent of that is spent on non-plan expenses like salary and establishment costs.

To be fair, Lucknow has gained immensely by electing Vajpayee for four consecutive terms. In the 1990s, large portions of the MPLAD funds went into basic amenities, including Sulabh Sauchalays and schools. They are the reason why Vajpayee is still adored by a large majority of the electorate.

But that does not prevent ordinary residents from criticising the manner in which development activities have been carried out in Lucknow over the past several years.

Cautions Ram Vilas, a rickshaw puller, ‘‘The wide roads around Raj Bhavan Colony, the Vidhan Sabha neighbourhood and Hazratganj can be misleading.’’ He is right, for the pictures that linger are the overflowing sewers and choking nullahs in Sikander Nagar, Jaiprakash Nagar, Ekalavya Nagar, Balu Ada and Bapu Nagar.

In ancient centre of learning, wisdom counts

Varghese K George in Nalanda

SAMATA Party MP George Fernandes has help when it comes to nurturing his constituency, Nalanda. While the defence minister concentrates on rural projects, Rajya Sabha MPs Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Gaya Singh seem to focus more on showcase schemes.

Though Fernandes is not personally involved in overseeing the projects he sponsors, he took a keen interest in Kargil Park, a project funded by Rs 35 lakh of Rajiv Ranjan’s MPLAD monies to commemorate 170 sons of Bihar martyred in various wars, in Nalanda town. Singh has also built a swimming pool (next to a natural pond), tennis courts and squash clubs in the district headquarters, Bihar Sherif.

So far as the funds of the minister himself are concerned, there are nearly 450 projects in various stages of completion, some of them dating back to 1998. However, there has been a distinct switch in thrust areas in recent years, with schools now getting the lion’s share of attention.

H S Meena, DM of Nalanda, takes some of the credit for that. ‘‘I suggested to the MPs to contribute towards 40 10-room schools, each costing Rs 11.3 lakh,’’ he says.

Funding for physical infrastructure for education is limited in Bihar. Upto the primary level, some funding has been recently made available through Panchayati Raj institutions. But for high school buildings, there is no designated so-urce of funds at all.

Already, the assurance of a roof over their heads — protection from the extreme weather conditions of Bihar — has made a major difference in attendance. ‘‘It has kept pace with the improvement in infrastructure,’’ says Meena.

Fernandes’ MPLAD will fund 22 schools over two years. ‘‘This has been a major blessing for us. School buildings have been collapsing for lack of maintenance,’’ say Sadhusharan Prasad and Shatrughan Prasad, both teachers at Baleshwar Singh HS at Pathasangh in Nalanda.

With the majority of Fernandes’ funds committed to these schools, the rest is diverted to rural roads, community centres and small bridges. Demand for small bridges are very high in an area laced with small streams and channels. Community centres can double-up as polling booths too, encouraging voters reluctant to travel long distances. Demand and allotment for electrification and irrigation projects are limited.

Out of touch with reality

Tariq Mir in Srinagar

OMAR ABDULLAH, two-time MP from Srinagar, is perhaps one of the few MPs who boasts upfront about utilising all his MPLAD funds. According to the office of the District Magistrate, Srinagar, and Abdullah’s office, the MP has spent more than Rs 8 crore in repairing roads, building culverts and constructing lavatories.

But in the backwaters of his constituency, a different picture emerges. For instance, the official records say a lane and a drain were built in Khotoo Mohalla, Khimber, in the Hazratbal area of the city. But a teeth-rattling drive over rough roads reveals that a startling fact: There is no Khotoo Mohalla in Khimber.

Yet in the books, Khimber and adjoining areas account for Rs 18 lakh in MPLAD funds. ‘‘Whatever the records say, only one gate has been built here in the recent past,’’ says Gulzar Ahmad, resident of Ahyl Danihama.

In Ganderbal, from where Omar fought and lost his bid for the state assembly last year, the MPLAD-funded Ganderbal Higher Secondary School takes pride of place. But deep inside the area, the familiar story of corruption unfolds. A 2-km link road connecting two villages is supposed to have come up here at a cost of Rs 10 lakh two years ago.

‘‘Ten lakh!’’ chuckles Mohammed Amin, a teacher and resident of Dursum. ‘‘The potholes here are large enough for a person to snuggle into. Would it have been like this if the road had been repaired two years ago?’’

Kangan, across the stream, accounts for Rs 92 lakh in MPLAD funds. Of 33 projects, 26 are supposed to be complete. The four-km Kachnambal-Chattergul road has been the recipient of Rs 12 lakh over the past three years — on paper. But on the ground, the first kilometre is tar, the rest is gravel and dust.

That is not to say, however, that all of Omar’s MPLAD went down the drain. Around Rs 2.5 crore went into a children’s park in the centre of the city, 10 ambulances worth Rs 24 lakh have been donated to health institutions. Schools in Budgam and Ganderbal have been gifted computers worth Rs 49 lakh.

Simultaneously though, Rs 5 crore earmarked for drains, culverts, lavatories and roads has been siphoned off.

Playing house with money

Ratan K Pani in Sambalpur

IN BARGARH, hometown of sitting Sambalpur MP and leader of Biju Janata Dal in Parliament Prasanna Acharya, 350 students study in classes VI to X in the municipal girls’ high school. A healthy figure, but their environment isn’t quite that healthy. All the five classes are packed into the Town Hall, with about six feet separating them. And that’s the way it has been for the past 25 years.

The situation is no better in Sambalpur proper. Half-constructed libraries and unused community halls indicate the use of MPLAD funds to pander to vote banks rather than serve any real interest of the people. Of the 1086 sanctioned projects under MPLAD, 911 relate to buildings, and only 65 to watershed or lift irrigation. This, in an area commonly stalked by drought.

So prickly is the issue of allocation that the Acharya and Bargarh Collector Vir Vikram Yadav are at loggerheads, with Yadav refusing to endorse more than 300 projects as it violates the provisions of allocation and spending of of MP LAD funds allocated to the MPs. One of the projects involves sanctioning Rs 10 lakh for the library building of Padmashree Kuthartha Acharya Institute of Engineering and Technology (PKIET), named after the MP’s late father.

There are other sticking points. An ambulance has been reportedly made over to a non-existent club at Sohela. And as community centres, rest sheds, library buildings, kalyan mandaps and concrete lanes crowd the list, the construction of a Rs 50,000 building to house the first computerised Braille press at Hirakud Colony is still hanging fire.

‘‘With the Department of Mass Education and DPEP providing for additional classrooms and computer education, the MPLAD funds could have been used more productively in education, health services, drinking water, sanitation and irrigation programmes,’’ grumble locals.

Others point out that buying books for existing libraries would have made more sense than constructing library houses that had no money to buy books.

And as the tenure of Acharya nears its end, it is only the large plaques with his name boldly inscribed that stand out amid the debris of projects abandoned halfway for want of funds.

In darkness near a thermal plant

Subrata Nagchoudhury in Bolpur

IN THE shadow of the 600-MW Bakreshwar thermal power plant, villagers in CPI(M) MP Somnath Chatterjee’s Bolpur constituency prefer to live in darkness. And so, they are a blot on Chatterjee’s otherwise impeccable MPLAD record.

How come Chatterjee’s own turn upon him? Not for want of effort on the aging MP’s part: Fifty rural electrification schemes, worth Rs 1.2 crore of MPLAD funds, have been hanging fire, many of them since 1996-97. The reasons are primarily two. One, villagers seem to believe that if they live in darkness long enough, sooner or later they’ll get power free of cost. And two, illegal taps, which supply them the minimal power they can’t do without.

Consider Rassaipur Adibasipara, a tribal village in Santhia block. Chatterjee included it in a rural electrification scheme in 1998-99. In June 2002, the district magistrate released Rs 1,22,000 to that end, and the West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) put up the electric poles. But the would-be beneficiaries refused to part with the one-time deposit of Rs 600 the WBSEB demands of each consumer. And that was that.

‘‘We will not be able to deposit the sum,’’ a belligerent Kalipada Kishku of the village reiterated as scores of others agreed. Lurking behind their statement is the belief that if the poles have come, power — unpaid for — will follow.

In a way, it already has. Pointing to a hooking device (kundi connection) on a set of wires, Babulal Murmu says, ‘‘When one is already enjoying it free of cost, how can the WBSEB expect consumers to sign up and make payments. So people like me, who want legitimate connections, suffer.’’

For the sake of others like him, Chatterjee is known to have blasted WBSEB officials for the delay in the projects in June this year. But the WBSEB itself is said to be short of installation equipment.

A superintending engineer of the WBSEB, while refusing to be named, however, claims it is the absence of a consumer base that is holding up electrification. The WBSEB, as a matter of policy, requires at least three consumers for every electric pole it sets up.

Barring power, Chatterjee’s record is enviable. In the initial years of MPLAD, the stress was on schools and roads. Critics allege that since the implementing agencies — school management committees and panchayat samities respectively — were packed with party cadres, funds were siphoned off indiscriminately.

However, random checks indicate that the schools and roads do exist, and in good condition. So much so, even political rivals acknowledge the MP takes care of his constituency.

Too many roads, leading nowhere

Ritu Sarin from Uttar Pradesh

IN Sambhal, the constituency that returned Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav to Parliament, generators run for 20 hours a day. Power is supplied for three-four hours at best. There is little to indicate that apart from Mulayam’s own MPLAD funds, three Rajya Sabha MPs — Mulayam’s brother Ram Gopal Yadav, Samajwadi MP Rama Shankar Kaushik and former MP D P Yadav (who was defeated by Mulayam but continues to nurture Sambhal, his hometown) — pump money into Sambhal. And all their effort seems to have gone into duplicating municipal works and road construction.

At Moradabad, 35 km from Sambhal, Ravindra, the Chief Development Officer, says Mulayam has spent the bulk of his MPLAD funds. Most of the 29 projects involve construction or repair of roads, some as short as 200 meters. One nullah and one college boundary wall, too, have been repaired courtesy Mulayam’s MPLAD.

But Sambhal BDO Sanjay Kumar admits that some of the projects (or ‘quota roads’) is poor. ‘‘The present MP is duplicating the work of the Nagar Palika. MP-LAD funds are disbursed simply on the basis of votebanks,’’ he says.

But that is no guarantee for good work. Take the 2-km road laid at a cost of Rs 21.6 lakh between Dadool and Rafiqpur villages in August 2001. The stretch includes a narrow bridge at Rafiqpur. Today, a part of the bridge has caved in. In parts the road resembles a moonscape and in parts, a slushy dirt track. ‘‘What’s the point in an MP spending so much money is the construction is so bad?’’ asks villager Satish Kumar.

According to Project Director R S Gautam, it is because ‘‘there is a lot of political interference. Once a project is cleared, we should be allowed to take the decisions.’’

If anyone benefits from these projects, it is the local MLA, Iqbal Mehmood. Plaques on the ‘quota roads’ attribute the construction to his ‘‘anurodh’’; Mulayam is credited — second — with the prastaav.

Meanwhile, in Attarsi, the four-acre Mulayam Singh Yadav College is bustling with construction activity. The college, says principal Mohammad Kha-lid, has been functional for two years, and they need only wait till February 2004 to be eligible for grants under MPLAD. ‘‘Till then, we will house our students in sheds,’’ he says.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Varghese K George in Vaishali

RASHTRIYA JANATA DAL MP Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has a unique position on the issue. Lauded for his judicious use of the MPLAD funds, he is also the only lawmaker to want the scheme scrapped.

The reason: Two MPLAD projects — brick-laying on two roads in Chakdaria and Totuha villages — that were apparently cleared by forging his signature. “Villagers came to me, alleging that the work on my projects was substandard. To my surprise, I realised the funds had been released without my approval,’’ says Singh.

The MP’s letter of approval, on genuine official stationary, was dated February 6, 2001. In a show of unusual alacrity, the estimates were dated the day before.

The issue does not reflect well on the MP for one pivotal reason: A number of officials indicate the involvement of Singh’s nephew Mukesh Kumar, a power-broker of sorts, in the scam. ‘‘We respected Mukesh as Raghuvansh babu’s relative and did many things at his request. The MP may not be aware of all of them,’’ admits a senior official, while reiterating his belief in the authenticity of the MP’s signature.

In other respects, Vaishali is a better constituency than most, with average to good roads, schools and healthcare. Singh’s MPLAD funds have been spent mostly on laying bricks on water-logged village roads, renovating schools, and constructing waiting rooms at bus stops. To take care of a specific problem in the constituency, Singh gave dozens of transformers to villages where the BSEB had not been replacing it.

Playing Santa Claus across the state

K R Rajeev in Erode

LOCAL AIADMK men might be justified in having a problem with AIADMK Parliamentary Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP P G Narayanan’s spending habits. But the man himself is quite proud of the fact that he doesn’t restrict his munificence to one constituency — his own.

‘‘As a Rajya Sabha MP I have to consider representations from MLAs, collectors and party leaders of other areas too,’’ he points out. So Narayanan earmarked last year’s MPLAD funds for re-laying a stretch of the Mettur-Bhavani road, improving sanitary conditions in Andipatti TP, strengthening the bunds of Lower Bhavani canal Project (LBP), renovating Sengulam tank canal at Udumalaipet, desilting three tanks in Bhavani taluk, a canal in Palladam taluk and laying a road at SKT Nagar at Bhavani.

The Rs 30-lakh LBP project, though, has run into controversy. Local farmers claim the MP went ahead with the work without seeking their opinion.

‘‘Only after the work began did we get to see the poor quality. So we deputed a staff member to supervise the work after getting estimates from the PWD. Only after that did quality improve,’’ says Thamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, leader PC Sengottayan of Kavundapadi.

There are many similar complaints from other beneficiaries of the MP’s funds. Andhiyur TP member Mahaboob Batcha says though link roads were laid in his ward, the MP did not consult the town panchayat before the selection of works. So at Kamaraj Nagar, the road was laid in an area where there were no houses. But if the road had been laid in the southern portion of the nagar, many people could have benefited.

None of the carping, though, has deterred Narayanan. This year, among other projects, he has allotted Rs 30 lakh for drainage, retaining walls and road works in Pudhupatti TP in Theni district and Rs 15 lakh for a water and sanitary complex and road projects in Pannaikadu TP in Dindigul district. ‘‘All these projects have gor administrative sanction. Works will soon be finalised for the funds still available,’’ says the MP.