As the Delhi Assembly’s Winter Session began last Friday, the government announced it would double the funds available to each legislator under the MLA Local Area Development (MLALAD) Scheme. Now, each Delhi MLA will get Rs 7 crore annually, up from Rs 4 crore, for development projects in their constituencies. The MLALAD programme, modelled on a similar programme for MPs, provides funding for each constituency directly from the government. While MLAs and MPs do not directly receive the funds, they can recommend projects for the scheme. Both MLALAD and MPLAD have their own sets of guidelines but the projects funded by them are usually restricted to “durable infrastructure work”, from repairing roads to building community centres. During the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the funds were directed towards personal protective equipment such as masks and testing kits. The funds have also been used for natural disaster relief in some states. While the central programme for MPs allocates Rs 5 crore a year to each parliamentarian, state governments set their own allocations and guidelines. With its recent hike, Delhi MLAs have the largest LAD fund, followed by five states at Rs 5 crore. The smallest LAD fund is in Tripura at just Rs 35 lakh, followed by Rs 55 lakh in Arunachal Pradesh, and Rs 60 lakh in West Bengal. Delhi and Puducherry are the only Union Territories with a LAD scheme since they are the only UTs with Assemblies. Six other UTs and three states – Haryana, Punjab, and Sikkim – don’t have an MLALAD scheme. While Haryana MLAs previously had a Rs 5 crore fund for development work, primarily focused on rural constituencies, the programme was stopped in 2019. Last year, Opposition MLAs demanded an MLALAD scheme but it was denied by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar of the BJP. In Punjab last year, CM Bhagwant Mann proposed a Rs 10-crore fund but an MLALAD scheme has not been yet introduced, possibly owing to the state’s high debt. Between last year and this year, at least eight states have hiked their MLALAD funds and two have introduced the scheme. In terms of total LAD funding – combined for all MLAs in a state – Uttar Pradesh has the highest corpus available to its legislators at Rs 2,015 crore every year, with each of its 403 MLAs getting Rs 5 crore. Maharashtra’s 288 MLAs have a combined Rs 1,440 crore, followed by Rs 1,000 crore for Rajasthan’s 200 MLAs. On the other hand, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh have total LAD funds of Rs 21 crore and Rs 33 crore, respectively. But after factoring in population, Uttar Pradesh falls in the bottom 10 states in terms of MLALAD funds per capita, with Rs 85 lakh for every lakh population. West Bengal, which has one of the lowest per MLA allocations, also has the lowest per capita LAD funds at Rs 18 lakh per lakh population. The highest LAD funds per lakh population are in Mizoram at Rs 6.46 crore and Goa at Rs 6.35 crore. In many states though, MLALAD funds remain underutilised. For instance, in 2019-’20, a B.PAC study found that only 32% of Karnataka LAD funds were utilised. In Gujarat, between 2017-’18 and 2022-’23, a fourth of LAD funds went unused and lapsed.
