CPI(M) MPs to donate MPLAD funds for flood-hit Kashmir

NEW DELHI: CPI(M) members of Parliament will donate about Rs 10 crore from their MPLAD funds for relief and rehabilitation work in flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir.

"We have decided that all our MPs in both Houses of Parliament will donate Rs 50 lakh each from their MPLAD fund," leader of CPI(M) Parliamentary Party Sitaram Yechury told PTI here.

CPI(M) has nine members each in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, apart from two Left-supported independents from Kerala in the Lower House.

Yechury had earlier written to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to allow MPs to donate part of their MPLAD funds for relief and rehabilitation measures in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the letter, he had said that "the MPs, who are very concerned and agonised with the plight of people in Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of the unprecedented floods that have ravaged the state feel, may be permitted to send a part of their MPLAD fund."

Following Yechury's letter late last week, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said in its latest bulletin that "in the event of 'calamity of severe nature' in any part of the country, an MP can recommend works up to a maximum of Rs one crore for the affected district."

The funds would be released by the nodal district of the concerned MPs for the affected district anywhere in the country, the bulletin said.