25 percent of MPLAD funds in Assam not spent

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Around 25 percent of the MPLAD (MP’s Local Area Development Fund) released by the state parliamentarians of the 17th Lok Sabha remains unspent even now. The expenditure details report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, revealed this.

As of June 30, 2023, the utilization of funds by a few MPs in the state is encouraging. The expenditure of funds by the rest of the MPs is average, and the expenditure of funds by one of the MPs is poor.

The State has 14 MPs, against whom the Centre released Rs 145.50 crore for the development of their local areas. With bank interest, the released amount goes up to Rs 148.12 crore. The total entitled amount of funds for all 14 MPs from the state is Rs 250.50 crore. Rs. 105 crore of this amount is yet to be released by the Centre.

According to the expenditure details report, Rs 110.20 crore of the Rs 148.12 crore amount has been utilized. The remaining Rs 37.92 crore, or 25 percent of Rs 148.12 crore, remained unspent.

The highest expenditure of the MPLAD fund is by Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy, recording an expenditure of 98.97 percent of Rs 12.125 crore. Next to Roy is Naba Kumar Sarania of Kokrajhar, with an expenditure of 94.64 percent. The poorest expenditure is by Jorhat MP Topon Kumar Gogoi, with an expenditure of only 30.46 percent.

The expenditures of other MPs in the state are 90.42 percent of Karimganj MP Kripanath Mallah, 85.09 percent of Barpeta MP Abdul Khaleque, 85.08 percent of Autonomous District (Diphu) MP Haren Sing Bey, 75.38 percent of Lakhimpur MP Pradan Baruah, 70.31 percent of Kaliabor MP Gaurav Googi, 69.39 percent of Guwahati MP Queen Oja, 68.88 percent of Tezpur MP Pallab Lochan Das, 68.31 percent of Mangaldai MP Dilip Saikia, 68.20 percent of Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal, 67.89 percent of Nowgong MP Pradyut Bordoloi, and 58.14 percent of Dibrugarh MP Rameswar Teli. An MP gets Rs 5 crore annually for the development of his local area. According to rules, after an MP approves a scheme, the district administration has to monitor the implementation of the scheme, besides releasing the fund in phases. Of course, the moral responsibility also lies with the MP to monitor the implementation of the schemes approved by him.

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