The recently published report by India Spend has presented some startling figures regarding the expenditure of funds received from MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) by MPs for development work in their respective constituencies.
It has been stated that in the past one year, MPLADS funds of 298 members of Lok Sabha have remained unutilised. Moreover, only 16% of the total corpus of MPLADS has been used in the past year. The report also pointed out that in the last 22 years, Rs. 5,000 crore has remained unspent of the total fund set for the MPLADS.
In this episode of Sarokaar we discuss the significance of this report; try to understand the point of view of the MPs on this issue and the objective and requirement of the MPLAD scheme itself.
Guest: Ali Anwar Ansari (MP, JD-U) ; Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar (Founder Member, National Election Watch, ADR) ; Arjun Ram Meghwal (MP, BJP) ; Tapan Kumar Sen (MP, CPI-M) ; Gangadhar S Patil (Freelance Journalist)
Anchor: Amrita Rai