Eight fail to utilise 80% MPLADS funds

Tribune News Service

Balwant Garg

Faridkot, January 21

Faridkot Member of Parliament Mohammad Sadique has not received funds under the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for the past 10 months.

Reason: The MPLADS expenditure in Faridkot was less than 80 per cent of the funds received in 2021-22.

To get the first instalment (Rs 2.5 crore) of the MPLADS, it is mandatory to use a minimum of 80 per cent of the funds (Rs 5 crore) in previous year.

According to a report sent by the MPLAD Development Department to the Deputy Commissioners, since there was no utilisation certificate of Rs 5 crore funds received during 2021-22, none of the two instalments (Rs 2.5 crore each) for 2022-23 was released for Faridkot and seven other parliamentary constituencies in the state.

The report stated that Rs 90 lakh was lying unspent in Faridkot district, Rs 1.33 crore in Patiala district, Rs 4.46 crore in Jalandhar district, Rs 3.28 crore in Gurdaspur district, Rs 2.98 crore in Ludhiana, Rs 3.87 crore in Hoshiarpur, Rs 3.44 crore in Bathinda and Rs 2.46 crore in Fatehgarh Sahib parliamentary constituencies.

The Amritsar, Ferozepur, Tarn Taran and Sangrur parliamentary constituencies were provided the first instalment of Rs 2.5 crore in 2022-23. However, they were not released the second instalment as the MPs of these constituencies didn’t sanction more than Rs 1 crore of the released amounts.

The report states that all seven Rajya Sabha MPs in the state have unsanctioned amount of over Rs 1 crore of their first instalment of 2022-23.

Further, available funds to Punjab-based MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha were Rs 107.78 crore and the total sanctioned amount was Rs 85.57 crore. A total of Rs 68.20 crore was spent and utilisation certificate of 1,153 works of Rs 36.69 crore was pending.

The Rajya Sabha members have Rs 17.58 crore available funds and only Rs 4.96 crore has been sanctioned by them so far. The MPs have yet to submit the utilisation certificates of 414 works of Rs 10.93 crore for the 16th Lok Sabha.

As per the report, Punjab has been placed at ninth position in the country, when it comes to utilisation of funds till December 31, 2022.

While Gujarat ranked first, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh stood at the 12th and 15th positions, respectively.

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