Current Affairs 2021: Salient Features of MPLAD Scheme

By Yash Singhal

MPLADS Scheme was started in 1993 to initiate the development work other than the regular government schemes. See here about the MPLAD scheme and its features.

In order to make rapid development, the Government of India, in 1993, came up with the scheme known as the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS). Under this, various development projects, mainly building up the public or community assets, need to be recommended by the Member of Parliament, mainly by the member of Upper House or Rajya Sabha, in his or her constituency without any limit of the allocated budget.

MPLADS was formulated for the development purpose as MPs are the leaders of the public and they can know better what are the needs of the local people. In 1993, a fund of 5 lakh was allocated per constituency, it was later increased to 2 crores in 1998-99 and then again to 5 crores in 2011-12 after calculating the success of this scheme. The fund allocated in this scheme is non-lapsable i.e. if the fund is not consumed up in a particular financial year then it will be added in the next financial year. So, if the total fund doesn’t get released in one go then the money gets disbursed by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation(MoSPI). Thus, in order to fasten up the process of building community assets locally, MPs can recommend various development projects in their constituency without any limit.

But apart from that MPs can also recommend various projects outside his constituency but up to 25 lakh. They can also donate that money to relief funds up to 25  lakh in case of natural calamity in the state and the ceiling limit is 1 crore in case of severe natural calamities like Tsunami, major cyclones and earthquakes. MPs can recommend the work to be done in a particular constituency, but it is the District Authorities (DAs) that make it to the ground level. They are responsible for the overall sanction, implementation and inspection that at least 10% of the work is done or not. Along with that any work done and put into use must bear the plaque name and all the relevant details of the project and MP’s name who recommended it. DAs are responsible to involve the MPs in the inspection of projects up to great extent. Along with that MPs need to spend 15% of the budget for the development in SC/ST community areas.

MPLAD fund can also be consumed for MGNREGA for creating more durable assets for the country. In addition to that this fund can also be consumed for the Khelo India activities. Under this scheme,  the fund will tend to serve a greater public purpose and not the purpose of a few individuals. Here only MPs can recommend the works but it is the DAs that have the superior power to implement that work within the particular constituency. Here works can be divided into the 3 categories:

Key areas: Proper drinking water, education, electricity, non-conventional energy resources, healthcare and sanitation, irrigation facilities, railways, roads and other infrastructure, sports, agriculture and allied activities or facilities, SHOs development etc. MPs can also organize various competitions to gather more ideas about the locally felt necessity or need and can award prizes to the ideas that are really needed for local development.

Banned areas: Building up offices or any other infrastructure that serves private purposes, that can be land acquisition, development of projects for any religious groups etc.
Other working areas: Development of schools, installing CCTV cameras at strategic locations, hospitals or any primary healthcare clinics etc.