Delhi Govt plans to hikeMLA LAD fund to Rs 10 cr

| | New Delhi

The Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal of its Urban Development Department to increase the MLA Local Area Development (LAD) fund from Rs 4 crore to Rs 10 crore annually.

With 70 MLAs in the Delhi Assembly, the legislators will have a corpus of Rs 700 crore annually to take care of developmental activities in their respective Assembly segments.

If all the seven Members of Lok Sabha and three of Rajya Sabha are taken into account, Delhi MLAs and MPs will be having Rs 750 crore at their command to augment various services across the national Capital. A member of Parliament gets Rs 5 crore per annum as the MPLAD fund.

The decision was taken at a Delhi Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Making an announcement in the Delhi Assembly, Delhi Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain said the Cabinet’s decision will be implemented this year.

According to the Delhi Government, reason behind increasing the MLA LAD fund is to address the immediate pressing needs of the local area by executing civic works in a time bound manner in the public interest.

“The limit of Rs 4 crore for MLA LAD fund was fixed in 2011-12 and remained the same despite the fact that the budget outlay of Delhi increased from Rs 27,000 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 50,000 crore in the current financial year,” the Government said in its official statement.

Citing the condition of small scale infrastructure in Delhi colonies and DDA areas, the Government mentioned that the failure of the local bodies in maintenance and upkeep of the civic amenities and infrastructure in their respective areas is a well known fact, which could be tackled to some extent by increasing the quantum of funds and scope of work in the MLALAD scheme.

It is important to mention here that due to multiplicities of civic agencies, instance - Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Public Works Department (PWD) and three wings of municipal corporations and council - various projects and schemes pertaining to local infrastructure are stuck.

Recently, the desilting of drains created a chaos between civic agency and PWD. Despite the reviews by CM Kejriwal, Delhi people witnessed problems during days of heavy rain.