Poor record of MPs

Though the Lok Sabha election is around the corner, several Members of Parliament elected from Assam have not been able to spend the entire amount of money allocated to them by the Union government under the ambitious Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds. According to data available with the Government of India’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, as of February 19, 2024, the 14 MPs from Assam together are entitled to a total fund of Rs 250.50 crore. While the Union Government had released Rs 145.50 crore, at least Rs 18.05 crore remained in the unspent balance of the Assam MPs at the end of February. The five-year terms of these MPs are slated to end by May 2024. A look at the list of MPs with the total amount of unspent funds against them would probably also reflect on their overall performance. While Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi (Congress) has an unspent balance of Rs 1.051 crore, Guwahati MP Queen Oja (BJP) has an amount of Rs 2.33 crore. Likewise, senior Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi and MP from Kaliabor have Rs 1.19 crore as unspent balance, while Dilip Saikia, BJP MP from Mangaldoi, has Rs 1.79 crore. Union minister and Dibugarh MP Rameswar Teli’s (BJP) unspent amount stands at Rs 1.02 crore, while that of Topon Kumar Gogoi, a BJP MP from Jorhat, is yet to spend a sum of Rs 1.01 crore. The list has also revealed that Haren Sing Bey (BJP) of Autonomous District has an unspent balance of Rs 1.61 crore, Abdul Khaleque (Cong) of Barpeta has Rs 1.028 crore, and Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) of Dhubri has Rs 3.78 crore as an unspent amount of Rs 81 lakh, while Lakhimpur MP Pradan Baruah (BJP) has Rs 82 lakh as an unspent amount at the end of five years. It is unfortunate that the MPs from Assam have been unable to make proper utilisation of the funds that the Centre has provided them to carry out various schemes through which the common people will benefit. The MPs should tell their voters and the people of the state what exactly the reasons are for which this huge sum of money has remained unspent.