Rs 21.59-crore MPLADS fund remains unutilized in Assam

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: An amount of Rs 21.5877 crore, as an unspent balance of the released amount under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) Fund, allocated for the 14 MPs of Assam, is lying unutilized, and Rs 105 crore is yet to be released by the Government of India as of November 1, 2023.

This is a statistic revealed in a report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of the Government of India (GoI).

It was also revealed that the 14 MPs were entitled to a total of Rs 250.50 crore under the MPLAD scheme. Of this, Rs 144.50 crore was released by GoI.

As per norm, the funds released for the MPs are deposited in the bank account of the respective district administration, and interest is accrued on the amount thus deposited. With the addition of this interest, the total amount available in the banks comes to Rs 148.5568 crore.

Out of the total available amount, an amount of Rs 134.9756 was sanctioned for the implementation of schemes under MPLADS. Of this sanctioned amount, a total of Rs 21.5877 crore has remained unspent.

The performance of the 14 MPs of the state in utilising their share of the MPLAD funds was also mentioned in the report.

According to the report, the highest percentage of the amount was utilised by Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy, with 98.97% spent. On the other hand, the MP with the least amount spent was Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal, who spent 68.20%.

The performance of the other MPs was also highlighted, along with the percentage of the released amount utilised.

Thus, Guwahati MP Queen Oja utilised 69.39% of the sanctioned amount. Similarly, Topon Kumar Gogoi, the MP from Jorhat, spent 87.40% of his fund. Dibrugarh MP Rameswar Teli could spend 85.99% of his fund, while Karimganj MP Kripanath Mallah spent 90.42%. Pallab Lochan Das, the MP from Tezpur, spent 68.88%, while Lakhimpur MP Pradan Baruah managed to spend 94.84%. Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi spent 91.32% of his fund, while Horen Sing Bey, MP of the autonomous district, spent 95.59%. Barpeta MP Abdul Khaleque spent 85.09%, while Kokrajhar MP Naba Kumar Sarania spent 94.64%. Mangaldoi MP Dilip Saikia spent 82.57% of his fund, while Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi spent 87.41% of his sanctioned amount.

According to the guidelines, the MP’s role is usually to recommend a scheme or work to be implemented. It is the district administration concerned that implements the scheme or gets work completed. For this purpose, a construction committee is formed. The committee also includes representatives of the government. An MP, therefore, has only moral responsibility for the completion of a work or the implementation of a scheme. So, responsibility for non-implementation cannot be fixed on the MP. It is the district administration that is held responsible for any lapse.

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