Panel for speedy release of MPs’ funds

The parliamentary panel on Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds has recommended that amounts donated by lawmakers for rehabilitation work after natural disasters be disbursed within two weeks.

Purpose defeated

The panel, headed by Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha M. Thambidurai, on Tuesday observed that funds allocated for the purpose by the parliamentarians often reach the affected people too late to help.

Currently, the actual transfer takes anything from six months to over a year due to red tape. Funds are to be released by the nodal district of the lawmaker concerned to the district authority of the affected district.

“The aid has to reach at the earliest or otherwise it loses its significance. We have told the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation that the funds given by an MP from his MPLAD for any disaster should reach the affected people in two weeks,” Mr. Thambidurai told The Hindu.

An MP gets ₹5 crore a year to spend on local area development.

MPs were allowed to spend the money outside their constituency — and outside their State in case of Rajya Sabha— after the 1999 super cyclone in Odisha.

As a result ₹775 lakh contributed by 77 MPs, was used to construct 83 schools in the State following the disaster. After the Gujarat quake, 153 MPs from the Lok Sabha and 163 from the Rajya Sabha contributed around ₹49 crore for construction of anganwadis.

In 2014, the cap of ₹10 lakh for donations by MPs was increased to ₹25 lakh.

In a 2013 report, the parliamentary panel of the MPLAD committee found that ₹9.42 crore contributed by MPs from their MPLADS funds for the Gujarat earthquake and ₹5.21 crore contributed for Tsunami Relief Works which occurred in 2001 and 2004, respectively, were still pending with the State governments.