A saga of cruel neglect: India's MPs refuse to utilise the Rs 10 million meant for their constituencies

George Iype in New Delhi

More than three years after the launch of the much-acclaimed Rs 10 million constituency development fund for each member of Parliament, the scheme is about to be wound up. Thanks to the neglect and unwillingness of MPs to recommend projects that would improve the lives of their constituents.

Nearly eight months after the ascension of the United Front government, while 300-odd MPs of the 11th Lok Sabha have not yet submitted any concrete constituency development plans to the federal ministry of programme implementation, some 200 MPs have failed to utilise the money granted to them on a platter.

Topping the list of senior politicians who have shown scant regard for their constituents are Leader of the Opposition Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, Congress leaders S B Chavan and Madhavarao Scindia and federal ministers Chand Mahal Ibrahim, Murasoli Maran and Devendra Prasad Yadav.

Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has asked for the release of Rs 2.8 million for the construction of a small bridge in his home town, Haradanahalli in Karnataka.

The MPs's neglect for their constituents has forced the ministry of programme implementation to suggest to the federal finance ministry that the scheme be scrapped or revamped. Sources said the funds-starved finance ministry is all for scrapping the project.

According to ministry sources, one of the major reasons undermining the scheme is "an ongoing clash between new MPs and their predecessors" on the nature of projects to be undertaken.

"Many MPs in the present House do not want to carry on with their predecessors's projects," a ministry official said. "The UF government will have to cough up additional funds to complete schemes proposed by previous MPs or alternatively abandon them," he told Rediff On The NeT.

The Rs 10 million per MP per year scheme was launched in December 23, 1993 by the Congress government headed by P V Narasimha Rao. It was then proclaimed that the scheme was the first step towards true development as it 'reflected the conceptual departure in thinking with regard to development at the formulation and implementation level.'

The government announced that MPs were often approached by their constituents for projects that involved relatively small amounts, and hence the scheme.

Though the Rao government allocated Rs 7.89 billion for the scheme during fiscal 1995-96, more than 200 MPs did not use a single paise. The result: By the end of the financial year nearly Rs 4 billion remained unutilised in the exchequer.

Under the scheme, an MP can recommend to the district collector projects worth Rs 10 million annually to be undertaken in his/her constituency. Members of the Rajya Sabha were allowed to select any district from the states from which they were elected.

But the government also laid down strict guidelines for the scheme. Thus, the scheme would not involve the purchase of any equipment or durable assets. Among the projects an MP could recommend were construction of school buildings, hostels, libraries, roads, bridges and homes for the old and handicapped.

Many believe the MPs are not keen to undertake such development activity in their constituencies because the scheme prevents them from handling the cash personally. "Every MP would have taken the Rs 10 million within days, if the money was paid to them personally," said an official associated with the programme.

Sources at the ministry of programme implementation says the scheme flopped due to three reasons.

First, while launching the scheme, the government did not take into account the fact that for an MP the constituents mean potential voters and not the community per se. There had been no separate mechanism to identify the projects to be undertaken and the location where they would do maximum good to the maximum people.

Secondly, an MP had to very often deal with two district collectors as his constituency straddles two districts.

Thirdly, political rivalry between the MPs and Opposition-ruled state governments meant the latter often asked district collectors to prevent the former from carrying out the Rs 10 million local area development scheme.