A den of corruption

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

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.