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The Revised Draft Guidelines for the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) has been sent to the Committees of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha dealing with the subject. The Guidelines are being revised taking into consideration the difficulties and problems faced by Members of Parliament in the implementation of their Local Area Development Schemes. The Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation Shri Oscar Fernandes had separate meetings with Members of Parliament from different States during the last Parliament Session. In this connection he is planning to have two more interactive meetings with the rest of the MPs from the remaining States during the winter Session beginning from Ist of next month.
The MPLADS Committees of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have in the meantime, communicated their views on the revised draft to the Ministry. Taking the views of the Committees as well as the remaining Members of Parliament, the Guidelines will be modified and the revised Draft submitted for approval.
The MPLADS Lok Sabha Committee Chairman is appointed by the Speaker, while the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is the ex-officio Chairman of the other committee. These two Committees consider issues relating to implementation of the MPLAD Schemes and suggest improvements. For monitoring the works started under the scheme, the Ministry has developed a software and sent it to 10 districts of different States for a pilot study. After the study, necessary changes would be made in the software and forwarded to all State Governments, the Union Territory Administrations and the Districts Heads, for monitoring the works taken up under MPLADS. Till date, the Government has released Rs.690 crore for works under the Scheme.
Under MPLAD, Rs.2 crore per annum, per Parliamentary Constituency, is released to the District Heads for the execution of the works recommended by a Member of Parliament. The amount is released in two instalments of Rs.1 crore each on the basis of Statement of Expenditure received from the District Head. The Guidelines among other things, indicate 33 permissible works that can be taken up by an MP and 9 works that are not permissible under the MPLADS. The Ministry recently issued a directive disallowing any change in the Scheme, once having been sanctioned and works started.
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