With the Assembly polls just a month away, and a possible re-election now more than a hope, most outgoing legislators have recommended that the last rupee from their ‘local area development’ fund be released to spruce up infrastructure in their respective constituencies.The Urban Development Department — that processes these requests and releases the funds — has had to constitute a special team for the allocation and management of the money given to legislators, a senior official said. He added that only 50 per cent of ‘local area development scheme’ or LADS funds had been used till September, but ever since then they have had a rough time managing the disbursal. An MLA, he said, gets to use Rs 2 crore per year to develop his constituency of which the maximum he can spend on an individual project is Rs 70 lakh. Ministry sources said requests have come in to release the money to government agencies, with the municipal corporation as the largest beneficiary. Most MLAs want to resurface roads, repair streetlights and develop local slums. Minister for Development Raj Kumar Chauhan, however, does not see anything wrong in the last-minute flurry of activity, more commonly known as ‘storming’. “The utilisation of funds is a regular process, and when tenures are ending, MLAs make sure the whole amount is used up.”Ministry sources say the use of funds is hardly ever staggered, with MLAs holding back a substantial amount for the election year. “Only 50 per cent is spent in normal course, the remaining is carried over every year to be spent just before elections,” an official of the Urban Development ministry said.However, the trend to hoard the money and then release in a burst in the last year, attracted the disapproval of the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2006. He had also pointed out MLAs by name who under-utilise funds in the normal course. Ministry officials also said that several MLAs recommend funds to be released only to the civic body, whereas other infrastructure agencies are equally eligible. The municipality gets more than 70 per cent of MLA LADS funds, he said, adding, the concentration is therefore on immediate infrastructure rather than on overall development. Other agencies which receive funds for development works are the New Delhi Municipal Council, the Delhi Jal Board, the Public Works Department (PWD), the Department of Flood Control, Discoms (Distribution Companies of the Delhi Vidyut Board), the Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation, Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation and the slum department of the civic body. Incidentally, the development scheme for MLAs was started by the Delhi government in 1994 with an initial allocation of Rs 1 crore for each MLA in a year. This was raised to Rs 1.40 crore in 1999 and further to Rs 2 crore in 2001.
