Friday, November 07, 2008

MLA Constituency Development Funds

The next time you see some civic problem in your area, ask your MLA to use his/her MLA Constituency Development Scheme (MLACDS) Funds for addressing the problem. Information received under Right to Information act from the Chennai Corporation, which is the implementation agency of the scheme for Chennai MLAs, revealed that about 43% of the funds allocated to 15 Chennai MLAs are lying unutilized. This information pertains to the last 2.5 years starting April 2006. This is the case when there is no end to the problems that the city is facing like bad roads, overflowing drainage and lack of waste management systems. In the last 2.5 years 45 crores have been allocated under this scheme to the 15 MLAs in Chennai. Out of this only about 26 crores have been utilized. The remaining 19 crores are unutilized. A party wise analysis reveals a different picture. Out of the 15 MLAs, 6 are from DMK and 7 are from AIADMK. DMK MLAs have utilized 75% of the funds, while the AIADMK MLAs have utilized only 36% of the funds allocated. The total unutilized funds lying in the account, accumulated since the inception of the scheme is 51 crores.

Individual utilization of MLAs varies from 13% to 100%. Mr.Arcot N.Veerasamy, MLA of Anna Nagar constituency and Mr.K.Anbazhagan, MLA of Harbour Constituency have utilized 100% of their funds, while the Chief Minister Mr.M.Karunanidhi representing Chepauk has utilized only 50% of the funds allocated so far. The complete table can be seen here.

Under this scheme every MLA is allocated a specific amount every year which could be used to implement works in the MLA’s constituency. This amount has been increasing regularly since the time of its inception. In 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 this amount was 1.2 crores per MLA. The amount has gone up to 1.5 crores this financial year. This is a convenient way for an MLA to get work done in his constituency since he only needs to recommend the work to the implementing agency and it gets done. But under utilization of this is a wonderful opportunity lost.

Informed citizenry leads to a better democracy and better functioning of the government. Every MLA needs to be questioned on his work done for his constituency. The utilization of these funds is one of the parameters based on which an MLA could possibly be evaluated. Hence such an exercise should be taken up by people in all over the state. Moreover, people need to find out not just how much of the funds were utilized, but also what works were implemented and how they were implemented, which is what I intend to do next.

This information in the Media.

CM fails to spend half of MLA's fund


"43 per cent of 15 MLAs' funds not used"

Unused Constituency Development Funds in Chennai (Tamil)

1 comment:

admin said...

Your blog is very informative.. Thanks a lot..