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Scrap the scheme

Just seven days after a sting operation exposed 11 MPs in a cash-for-questions racket, another undercover investigation has caught seven more parliamentarians discussing kickbacks with television reporters for handing out contracts under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS). At one level, this investigation is further confirmation — if any were needed — of the corruption and venality of those who occupy the highest legislative bodies in the country. At another and possibly more pertinent level, the scandal focusses attention on MPLADS — a scheme that has been wasteful, prone to gross misuse and, as the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution observed, is "inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution." Launched in late 1993, the scheme enables MPs to recommend "works" involving the "creation of durable assets" for "public use"; while Lok Sabha MPs may recommend to the district collector such works up to Rs.2 crore a year in their constituencies, Rajya Sabha MPs may do likewise in one or more districts in the States they represent. The scheme, which was justified on the ground that constituents often approach the MPs for small capital works, has been a study in abuse. Two reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General, in 1998 and 2001, have strongly criticised the waste and the serious irregularities in the implementation of the scheme. Given the nature of the scheme, it is easy for MPs to siphon away through commissions a part of the money spent on projects. According to the Ministry for Statistics and Programme Implementation, the Central Government has sanctioned a staggering Rs.14,070.52 crore cumulatively since its inception.

Yet those who occupy the two Houses have been largely unconcerned about the financial implications of MPLADS. Initiated with a provision of Rs.50 lakh per MP, the amount was raised to Rs.1 crore in the mid-1990s and to the existing Rs.2 crore in 1998. The pressure to increase the outlay has been ceaseless; a few years ago, the Lok Sabha Committee on MPLADS recommended that the payout be upped to at least Rs.5 crore. It would be a truly welcome thing if the sting operation provokes a serious debate on the wisdom of persisting with such a flawed scheme. A heartening development is that MPs from a wide section of the political spectrum — from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and sections of the United Progressive Alliance — have called for its scrapping. Earlier this year, the National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi recommended that MPLADS be abolished and that the money earmarked for it be transferred to local governments — or to where it truly belongs. As the NCRWC has suggested, there can be no place for a scheme that is inconsistent with the spirit of federalism and which "treads into the areas of local government institutions." The MPLADS militates against the very process of decentralisation. The ugly face of corruption, which was revealed candidly by the sting operation, is another reason it must go.

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