It refers to a Parliamentary Panel now recommending increasing annual allocation to rupees 10 crore per Parliamentarian toward MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) Scheme thus to burden exchequer with Rs. 8000 crore annually instead of present Rs. 1600 crore. This is despite that findings of an earlier Parliamentary panel constituted on a TV sting catching Parliamentarians taking bribe to approve schemes to be funded through their MPLADs funds, endorsed views of Planning Commission that the scheme is a sort of corruption. Even Lok Sabha Speaker has echoed likewise to scrap the scheme.
Many MPs are over-generous to fund their favourite organisations for their projects from this scheme even though such funding may have nothing to do with public-welfare. It may be recalled that trusts floated by Election Commissioner Navin Chawla were found to be generously funded by MPLAD allocation of Parliamentarians from ruling party. Our Parliamentarians must have capability to get work done for public-welfare from existing administrative-machinery, including wisely using RTI Act rather than needing short-cut by way of corruption-generating scheme!
Madhu Agrawal
Delhi