Utilization of available Funds

19/01/2019

Nearly Rs 29 crore funds under Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) of sitting Members of LokSabha and Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir have been lying unspent till date. Moreover, an amount of Rs 47.50 crore under the entitlement of the MPs is yet to be released by the Union Government although term of 16th Lok Sabha will formally end in next few months. As per the guidelines of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, each Member of Lok Sabha is entitled to Rs 25 crore for full term while as each Member of Rajya Sabha is entitled to Rs 20 crore. While three sitting MPs of Lok Sabha namely Muzaffar Hussain Baig (Baramulla), Dr Jitendra Singh (Udhampur) and Jugal Kishore Sharma (Jammu) are entitled for full Rs 25 crore Constituency Development Fund, Dr Farooq Abdullah (Srinagar) is entitled to only Rs 12.50 crore MPLADS funds as he became LokSabha Member only for half of the term in April 2017 when he won Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency, which had fallen vacant after the resignation of Tariq Hameed Karra from the LokSabha. At present, there is no Member of Parliament from Anantnag Parliamentary Constituency as by-polls for this seat could not be conducted in April 2017 due to disturbed law and order situation in South Kashmir. The Ladakh Parliamentary seat fell vacant in the recent past following resignation of Thupstan Chhewang.
Against the total entitlement of Rs 87.50 crore in respect of four sitting Members of LokSabha, the Government of India has released only Rs 60 crore-Rs 12.50 crore for Baramulla Parliamentary constituency, Rs 20 crore for Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency, Rs 7.50 crore for Srinagar Parliamentary constituency and Rs 20 crore for Jammu LokSabha seat as such Rs 27.50 crore against the total entitlement of these four constituencies is yet to be released. Against Rs 60 crore released by the Government of India under MPLADS for these four Lok Sabha seats, an expenditure of only Rs 45.19 crore has been made till date thereby leaving Rs 14.91 crore as unspent balance, reveal expenditure details of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The State Level Review Committee has not met as per the prescribed time-frame as a result of which several issues pertaining to implementation of scheme remain unresolved in several constituencies and this is notwithstanding the fact that direction for holding meeting was also passed in a meeting convened by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in the month of September last year. Moreover, nodal district authorities were directed by the Ministry to initiate steps to establish the facilitation centres for the MPs at the district level. But this direction has also remained unimplemented till date.

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