Scrap MPLADS fund,says SP MP

At a time when a large number of MPs cutting across party lines are clamouring for increasing the fund allocated to them under the...

At a time when a large number of MPs cutting across party lines are clamouring for increasing the fund allocated to them under the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) from the current limit of Rs 2 crore per annum to Rs 5 crore,SPs Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav has asked the government to abolish the scheme as people have serious reservations regarding misappropriation under it.

Yadav has written to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee voicing his objections to passing a report on the governments plans to increase the MPLADS fund.

I want to state that about this scheme people in general have serious reservations. The general perception of the people is that most of the money allotted to MPs is misappropriated. This is one of the reasons why more than 50 per cent of the sitting MPs have been defeated in the last general election, Yadav wrote to Mukherjee soon after the formation of UPA-II. This is my firm opinion that MPLADS has brought a bad name to all the members of Parliament. Those MPs who are 100 per cent honest in letter and spirit are also blamed as dishonest, Yadav reasons in his letter.

Since the launch of the scheme in 1993,the Centre has so far spent about Rs 18,000 crore under the scheme. Most of the members of the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on MPLADS in October were reported to have favoured a five- fold hike in the allocations.