Business Line: New Delhi: Tuesday, June 19, 2018.
The CIC has
directed the government to proactively disclose on its website the details of
works undertaken under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme
(MPLADS) in every constituency.
The directive
came after the Central Information Commission (CIC) was told by the Ministry of
Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) that it releases the MPLADS
funds, but does not keep a record of the works done, except statistics.
Information
Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said the ministry was receiving utilisation
certificates from district authority, but did not upload any utilisation detail
on the website. He said it was also not known whether these certificates
contained physical details of the actual works.
Every Member
of Parliament (MP) gets ₹5 crore annually to undertake development works of his
choice in his constituency, known as the Members of Parliament Local Area
Development Scheme (MPLADS).
The case
pertains to one Prashant Jain who had sought the details of work done by
Narendra Singh Tomar in his Lok Sabha constituency of Gwalior from the MPLADS
funds. Jain had sought details of the amount spent or donated on persons and
institutions from the minister’s MP quota in his parliamentary area, and the
works done in the constituency between January 2015 and August 2017.
The appellant
told the Commission that neither the MoSPI nor the district administration
provided him with the necessary information.
Jain said as
a citizen of the country, he had every right to know about the way the funds
were being utilised, and the same was in public interest. Acharyulu pointed
out, “The entire progress report is reduced into some statistics, which does
not give any information to the seeker as to what work was taken and to what
extent it was completed, how much was left, when it would be completed and the
reasons for delay, if any. This report hides more than revealing.”
He noted that
the district authority “hid the information” by furnishing some numbers and not
communicating about any stage of work, benefits or beneficiaries. “This amounts
to denial of right to information to MoSPI, MP and the people. They have a duty
to provide clear information about the progress of work under MPLADS to MP,
voters and the ministry which is funding the works,” the information
commissioner said.
Exercising
his powers under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Acharyulu directed the
district administration to publish information about the progress of work
regularly on its web site.
‘Failed to
check utilisation’
The official
also noted that the MoSPI officials failed to check the proper utilisation of
MPLADS funds. “It is not explained why they did not bother about proper
utilisation of funds. Has the ministry confined itself to maintain some
ambiguous statistics and totally ignore the program implementation? They have a
duty to secure details of utilisation instead of accepting just numbers,” he
said.
Acharyulu
directed the ministry to publish MP-wise, constituency-wise and work-wise
details procured from the district administration and ensure the publication of
the same in public domain by both local administration and the ministry.
The
information commissioner also directed Tomar to inform the appellant about the
works he recommended and their progress as well as the projects rejected by
him.
The official
added that if any MP had not recommended works for any part of the fund, he had
a legal and moral duty to explain the reasons for not recommending works to the
extent of ₹25 crore.
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