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The government, on Thursday, said there was no proposal to end the Member of Parliament Local Area Development scheme and steps would be taken to ensure that there was no corruption or misuse of the scheme.
"There is no proposal to close down the MPLAD scheme at all. In fact, the Ministry is trying to improve the standard of the scheme," G K Vasan, Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister said in the Rajya Sabha.
Brinda Karat, member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) created a flutter in the House when she said the MPLAD scheme was a means of corruption and funds under the scheme should be under the direct control of state governments.
Some members opposed Karat's suggestion. Meanwhile, Vasan said the government did not intend to enact a legislation to regulate the MPLAD scheme.
The Minister, who was replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, said the government was constantly reviewing the MPLAD scheme to ensure that there was no corruption and it was transparent. He said this included submission of utilisation certificate and other formalities.
Vasan made it clear that the fund under the scheme could not be used for religious bodies such as temple, mosque or church. He said priorities under the fund would be for drinking water, public health and developmental schemes for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.