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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Inflated demands

Inflated demands

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published Published on Feb 4, 2010   modified Modified on Feb 4, 2010

As minister of statistics and programme implementation, Sriprakash Jaiswal should have the data to quantify how much money can buy. On Tuesday, making yet another pitch for increasing the annual local area fund for MPs, he said: “With prices soaring, Rs 5 crore — what we are seeking — would (be) equivalent to the Rs 2 crore given ten years ago.” His ire was directed at the Planning Commission for keeping in cold storage a three-year-old proposal to increase allocation for the MP local area development scheme (MPLADS). The demand to hike the funds is always in the air, but since the 2009 general election it has acquired greater currency. In an orientation programme for first-time Lok Sabha MPs the demand found utterance; and more recently, there was unanimity at a meeting of the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on MPLADS that the allocation be increased from Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore per MP. For now, a Planning Commission official counselled patience to Jaiswal by arguing that there is a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court on the advisability of the entire scheme.

There is, however, also a case to be made for legislators to take greater ownership over the debate on MPLADS. The case against the scheme has centred on both its execution and its conception. Jaiswal makes a valid point that cases of

corruption cannot of themselves be an argument to close the scheme.

Certainly, since it was first instituted in 1993 — as a way to give MPs a stake in incumbency — it has been a work in progress, and many gaps have presumably been plugged. So while there are concerns that MPs may not factor in future maintenance needs, it has also been rightfully argued that local bodies are in any case better placed to undertake such capital expenditure.

The problem is that by giving MPs the power to disburse funds the scheme erodes the separation — and thereby the checks and balances — between the legislature and the executive. It is precisely on these grounds that the Second Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Veerappa Moily, currently Union law minister, recommended that MPLADS be scrapped. Parliament needs to enter this debate.


The Indian Express, 4 February, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/inflated-demands/575194/
 

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