As many as 100 parliamentarians from all over the country have contributed Rs 43.66 crore from the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) fund for relief and rehabilitation works in flood-hit Kerala, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said Friday.
The MPLADS has provision for parliamentarians to contribute funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction works in the areas affected by severe calamity, the ministry said in a statement.
Once the heavy rain and flood situation of Kerala in August 2018 was declared by Ministry of Home Affairs as severe in nature, an appeal to all Members of Parliament (MPs) was issued on August 24, 2018 by Minister of Statistics Programme Implementation D V Sadananda Gowda to contribute from their MPLADS fund for rehabilitation works in affected areas of Kerala.
As per guideline of the MPLAD Scheme, an MP can contribute up to 1 crore from their MPLADS fund for rehabilitation works in affected areas. Till now, 100 MPs from across India have contributed a total amount of Rs 43.66 crore for this purpose, it said.
As much as Rs 29.82 crore has been contributed by 56 Rajya Sabha members and Rs 13.84 crore by 44 Lok Sabha MPs. As many 30 parliamentarians have contributed 1 crore which is the maximum that an MP can contribute while 12 MPs have contributed Rs 50 lakh or more and 12 MPs have contributed Rs 25 lakh.
Remaining MPs have contributed between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. Six MPs of Kerala have contributed their MPLADS funds for rehabilitation works.
As many as 14 MPs of Uttar Pradesh, 11 MPs of Maharashtra, 9MPs of Bihar, 7 MPs of Gujarat, 4 MPs each of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana,Punjaband Rajasthan, 3 MPs each of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradeshand Tamilnadu, 2 MPs each of Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal; 1 MP each of Chandigarh, Dadar& Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura have contributed for the rehabilitation works.
As per new guidelines, the rehabilitation works under MPLADS can be approved by Chief Secretary, Kerala in the flood affected areas / districts. The State Nodal Department overseeing the MPLAD scheme would maintain Report on work list, amount spent, etc. A separate Bank Account has been already opened by Government of Kerala to receive this amount, it added.
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