Most MLAs sitting on development funds

Neena Sharma 

Tribune News Service 

Dehradun, February 21

The newly-elected MLAs have spent just 12 per cent of the funds released under the MLA Local Area Development fund (MLALAD) for the financial year 2017-18, which will end on March 31. 

While Finance Minister Prakash Pant has spent just 1 percent of the fund, Ministers for State Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Arya have not spent a single penny from the MLALAD funds allocated to them. An RTI application revealed that a sum of Rs 195.25 crore was released for 71 MLAs elected in 2017. Of this amount, only Rs 23.29 crore has been spent. Most of the MLAs have shown little or no interest in utilising the funds to develop their constituencies. 

So much so that of the 71 elected and nominated MLAs atleast 21 MLAs, including BJP’s Rekha Arya, Dhan Singh Rawat, Saurabh Bahuguna, Rajesh Shukla, Dilip Singh Rawat, Sanjeev Arya and Congress’ Indira Hirdayesh, Mamta Rakesh, Harish Dhami, Manoj Rawat and Karan Mahra did not spend a single penny. Around 6 MLAs have not even taken the initiative of selecting the works for development. 

GIG Mann, a nominated BJP MLA, has spent 64 per cent of the amount allocated to him for this financial year, while Congress MLA from Purola Rajkumar has spent 63 per cent and chief minister TS Rawat has also spent 50 per cent of the funds till December.

Among the ministers, Labour Minister Dr Harak Singh Rawat spent 14 per cent, Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj spent 10 per cent, Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik spent 8 per cent, School Education Minister Arvind Pandey spent 6 per cent, Horticulture Minister Subodh Uniyal spent 6 percent and Social Welfare Minister Yashpal Arya spent 5 per cent.