A den of corruption

The Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme is best scrapped as it goes against the tenets of democratisation

Ash Narain Roy Delhi

The cash-for-query and the bribes for sanctioning projects under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) scandals have made our parliament look like a baby seal being lampooned from different directions by disapproving fellow members, over-zealous media, outraged citizens and all manner of right-thinking people. Our political leaders often try to hide a skeleton or two in their closet, but as the erring MPs have found to their discomfiture, some ghosts simply refuse to stay in the dark. By taking a prompt decision to expel disgraced MPs caught on camera accepting cash to ask questions, parliament has sought to recover its lost glory. But why is our parliament dragging its feet in the MPLADS scandal case?

The MPLADS, says Era Sezhian, former MP and author of MPLADS— Concept, Confusion,  Contradictions, a study report by the Delhi-based Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), is "ill-conceived, ill-prepared and ill-implemented." The best way to resist temptation, it is said only half seriously, is to yield to it. The MPs involved in the cash-for-query scandal perhaps yielded to this temptation. As they say, whom the gods wish to humble, they first make ridiculous. But MPLADS not only seems to be the only known government vessel that leaks from the top, it is also an attack on our federal polity.

Of the seven MPs seen on camera either demanding or accepting bribes for sanctioning projects under this scheme, five are from the lok sabha and two others are from the rajya sabha. The sinning seven include three members from Bhartiya Janata Party, and one each from Congress, Samajwadi Party(SP), Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Kranti Party. This list includes Churchill Alemao, former chief minister of Goa and Faggan Singh Kulaste, a former minister of state in the Vajpayee government. Toofani Singh Saroj of the SP, however, redeemed himself by refusing the offer. The constituency development scheme is rotten to the core and it should be scrapped forthwith.

The scheme was announced by then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao on December 23, 1993. As per the scheme, MPs were entitled to suggest to the district collector small development works capable of producing durable assets within their constituency. The scheme that was started with an annual allotment of Rs 1 crore was later raised to Rs 2 crore.

The MPLADS committee of the lok sabha has now suggested that it be raised
further to Rs 4 crore. Normally the advice of the MP given to the district head on the works for his constituency under this scheme shall prevail unless it be for technical reasons of non-suitability of land for the work or non-admissibility under the guidelines. The union ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation releases the funds directly to the collectors who get the works carried out through government agencies or panchayati raj institutions.

Two audit reports of the CAG on the performance of MPLADS were presented in 1998 and 2001, which found glaring irregularities and gross violations of the guidelines set forth for the scheme. The ISS study says that during the period between 1993 and 2000, parliament sanctioned Rs 5,558 crores for the MPLADS and the ministry released Rs 5,018 crores. The total amount utilised was Rs 3,221 crores representing 64 per cent of the released amounts.

The guidelines lay down that "the release of the funds will be made with reference to the actual progress achieved in expenditure and in execution of works" and that "the normal financial and audit procedures would apply to all actions taken under this scheme subject to the guidelines". The audit report reveals that the district collectors failed to obtain utilisation certificates in respect of 11,915 works constituting 70 per cent of the works completed. And yet, the ministry continued to release funds without any correlation to their end use.

The report states that amounts to the extent of Rs 1,797 crores remained unspent with the implementing agencies as on March 31, 2000. This represented 36 per cent of the total releases. The audit found that the collectors reported inflated xpenditure figures to the ministry, by reckoning the amount released to the implementing agencies as the final expenditure.  In a sample audit of 106 constituencies, it was found that of a total expenditure of Rs 265 crores reported by the collectors, Rs 82 crores, that is, 31 per cent of the total was, in fact, not incurred at all. The audit found numerous instances of violation of guidelines and financial rules in the implementation of the scheme, especially in the matter of expenditure relating to (i) 1,220 inadmissible construction works in 48 constituencies, (ii) 518 works of private and commercial organisations and trusts, (iii) 1,522 repair and maintenance works in 47 constituencies, (iv) purchase of stores and stocks for Rs 5.5 crores in 38 constituencies, (v) 66 works in places of religious worship, (vi) construction of memorials in 13 places, (vii) works in private land without surrender of titles in six states, (vii) irregular sanction of loans, grants and donations in six constituencies and (ix) other 533 inadmissible works in 33 constituencies.

The audit report of 2001 noted that as per a statement in parliament on April 19, 2000, a total of Rs 1,800 crore was "lying idle at that time and the interest earned on that amount was Rs 107 crore, whereas the central government was paying an interest of about Rs 200 crore on the borrowed funds in this regard." As Sezhian rightly points out, " This is poor economics and probably poor politics as well."
Irregularities and bungling apart, there is a far bigger issue at stake. MPLADS has allowed legislators to become part of the executive. It is against the basic tenet of democracy as it subverts the principle of separation of powers. Quoting EL Norminton, an authority on British parliament, who says,  "no account, no audit; no audit, no accountability", Sezhian adds, "no accountability, no parliament." Perhaps a far more damaging aspect of the so-called constituency development scheme is the negation of our federal structure.

According to former chief justice of India ES Venkataramiah, the scheme "has the effect of cutting across the constitutional provisions and is yet another sadistic interference with the legitimate contours of the constitution." He further adds, "To involve individual MPs to exercise any discretionary power which is within the realm of the union executive, in spending about Rs 800 crore annually bypassing the union ministry, union secretariat and state government or to ask individual MPs to do something without the consent of the other MPs when all of whom can function collectively only after due deliberation, appears to be wholly outside
the constitution."

MPLADS also deals a deadly blow to the process of democratic decentralisation and the panchayati raj institutions. As the advisory panel on decentralisation, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution said, "The provision for the representation of MPs and MLAs in panchayats and municipalities appears to go against the spirit of the constitution and its overall scheme of elected bodies at different levels." It also points out that the allocations for MPs and MLAs are financed out of the public exchequer and diverts funds which would otherwise be available to rural and urban local bodies.

It is indeed sad that rather than scrapping this ill-conceived scheme, most party leaders favour retaining it with some stringent safeguards. So the politics of doles shall continue. We shall continue what John Galbraith once said, "feeding horses oats so that sparrows can eat the dung."

The author is on the faculty of the Institute of Social Sciences, Delhi