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Wednesday, Dec 21, 2005

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Speaker's initiative to bring MPLADS under scrutiny

Neena Vyas

To host dinner meeting today to broach the subject with Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has taken the initiative to bring the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) under the scrutiny of political parties. He is hosting a dinner meeting on Wednesday to broach the subject with leaders of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Mr. Chatterjee has always personally opposed MPLADS, saying it interferes with the integrated development of districts. Now against the backdrop of a sting operation showing on camera MPs bargaining for commissions, the matter has gained urgency.

Guest list

His guest list includes Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Leader of the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh, Rajya Sabha Leader of the Opposition; Pranab Mukherjee, leader of the Lok Sabha; L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition; Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, National Democratic Alliance chairman.

Apparently, Mr. Chatterjee wants them to take up the issue in the light of a study conducted by the Centre of Social Studies and CAG reports on the working of MPLADS. These were sent to the chairman of the parliamentary committee on the scheme more than four months ago, but there was no feedback.

Advani's suggestion

Apparently, a couple of days ago Mr. Advani met Mr. Chatterjee and suggested that he take up the matter personally and use his influence to get the MPLADS reviewed. At a BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, he called for the scrapping of the scheme, but did not get the support of his MPs, some of whom said it worked well in some places.

BJP spokesperson V.K. Malhotra told reporters that Mr. Advani had written to the Speaker and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha on this subject, but the Speaker's office had not received any letter till late on Tuesday night.

Some party leaders recalled that although Mr. Advani on Tuesday talked about funding of elections from MPLADS funds, when he was Union Home Minister he sat over a report from the former Union Home Minister, Indrajit Gupta, on state funding of elections. "Not a thing was done by the NDA on this," said an MP.

Party leaders recalled that it was the BJP MP, Ram Naik, who proposed the introduction of the MPLADS that was accepted and implemented under the Narasimha Rao Government. The BJP was again behind doubling of the entitlement and more recently many of its MPs openly lobbied for doubling the funds available under the scheme to Rs. 4 crores a year.

Disciplinary action

The sting operation telecast by a channel on Monday caught several MPs of the BJP but only Fagan Singh Kulaste, representing Mandla in Madhya Pradesh, has been placed under suspension by the party and a show-cause notice issued.

Mr. Kulaste's involvement in the expose came when the party was considering making him president of its Madhya Pradesh unit. He was president of the BJP's Scheduled Caste Morcha.

Pleads innocence

The second BJP MP caught in the sting operation is Chandra Pratap Singh, already suspended in the wake of the cash-for-questions scandal, while the third, Ram Swaroop Koli, has pleaded innocence.

Party leaders said nothing concrete was shown on camera against Mr. Koli, hence he was not suspended.

Other parties have not taken any action. The Congress MP Alemao Churchill, former Goa Chief Minister, has written to the Speaker, the Prime Minister and Ms. Gandhi, saying he is innocent. He has filed a police complaint against the TV channel.

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