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The government has made certain changes in the release of funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) to bring in more financial accountability. These include, submission of utilisation certificate for the previous financial year and the audit certificate for the funds released for each Member of Parliament, in the year prior to the previous year, as furnished by the District Authority.
At the direction of the Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri Oscar Fernandes, a meeting of State Secretaries of Nodal Departments was held recently to review the progress of implementation of the MPLAD scheme. Among other things, the meeting considered, speedy implementation of the works under the scheme and utilisation of the unspent balance lying with the District Authorities, submission of the utilization certificates and audit certificates, data entry of the works for the year 2004-05 and 2005-06 by using the special Software developed by the Ministry for monitoring MPLADS works, distribution of unspent balance of former elected Rajya Sabha members among their successors, submission of the monthly progress report, details of action taken on two audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General, as well as implementation of Tsunami rehabilitation works.
All Nodal Districts have been asked to upload the data relating to the works taken under the MPLADS for transparency and easy accessibility. So far, 196 districts have uploaded the data in respect of 419 Members of Parliament including former MPs.
It has been made clear by the Ministry that water-harvesting works are permissible under the MPLADS, as water harvesting including rain water harvesting, will help in augmenting the surface water and raising the ground water level. This will help enhance the availability of water for use. As and when Members of Parliament recommend rain water harvesting work in a particular area, the concerned District Authorities examine the proposal and sanction the same, if found feasible and permissible under the MPLADS.
VKS/SR
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