Half of Modi's Cabinet with Sonia & Rahul Gandhi; None of them used a single penny under MPLADS

NEW DELHI: A striking similarity has emerged among about half of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress veep Rahul Gandhi, BJP veteran LK Advani and actor Rekha on a rather dubious count.

None of them has used a single penny under Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) this year, thereby denying benefits of the fund entitlement to their respective constituencies. Under MPLADS, each Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha member can recommend development works to the tune of Rs 5 crore every year in his or her constituency.

Nominated members of Parliament can recommend works anywhere in the country. However, in the current financial year many MPs have not utilised this opportunity. Though funds under MPLADS are non-lapsable, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, the nodal ministry for the scheme, had about Rs 1,000 crore as unreleased funds till February 25.

This is just over a fourth of the Rs 3,950 crore earmarked under MPLADS every year. A look at the performance of Cabinet ministers as MPs reveals that 11 of the 27 ministers have not recommended a single work under MPLADS and the utilisation is zero. These include ministers Manohar Parrikar, DV Sadanand Gowda, Uma Bharati, Kalraj Mishra, Ananth Kumar, Anant Geete, Harsimrat Kaur, Narendra Singh Tomar, Radha Mohan Singh and Harsh Vardhan.