To speed up development work at the local level in India, the Parliamentarian Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) was started in 1993. Under the scheme, every elected MP of the country gets a fund of Rs 5 crore every year for the basic needs and development works of his area. The rules are clear, this money should be spent only on construction of public assets, on government land and in government-controlled institutions. From the year 2011-12, this amount was fixed at Rs 5 crore annually for every MP. But are our MPs using this huge fund properly? The story that recent figures tell is quite disappointing…

Fund of Rs 11,544 crore, but expenditure is only 30.7%

The total amount allocated in the system for a total of 745 MPs of the 18th Lok Sabha (2024-29) and Rajya Sabha is Rs 11,544 crore. But out of this huge budget, only Rs 3,539.8 crore has been spent so far in the entire country. This simply means that only 30.7% of the total allocated funds is used for development work.

According to the data, the total allocation of the scheme for all 543 sitting members of the 18th Lok Sabha (till May 27, 2026) is Rs 8,265 crore. According to data from the Statistics Ministry, a total of 88,790 public works worth about Rs 4,787 crore have been recommended so far by Lok Sabha MPs. Of these, 67,524 works have been approved (worth Rs 3,547 crore). But only 21,807 works have been completed (worth Rs 1,047 crore).

57,257 projects are still pending in the country

Talking about the entire country (both houses), 29,964 projects have been completed (whose total cost is Rs 1,657.9 crore), but 57,257 projects are still pending. Apart from this, Rs 1,881.9 crore is part of the incomplete works for which payment has been made, but the works are not yet completed.

Northeast wins, Union Territories lag behind

Empowered Indian According to the report, there is a huge difference in the performance of 36 states and union territories. MPs from the North-East have made the best use of the fund.

• Nagaland leads the country, having spent 82.3% of its total allocation (29.1 crores out of 35.4 crores).
• After this, Mizoram is at second place with 73.8% (23.5 crore out of 31.9 crore).
• Meghalaya (63.9%), Sikkim (63.3%), and Arunachal Pradesh (62.8%) are also included in the top 5.

The situation in big states is not very encouraging.

• Uttar Pradesh has utilized 45.8% of the funds (₹814.6 crore spent out of ₹1,776.7 crore).
• Jharkhand has spent 42.4%, Bihar 39.7%, Punjab 38.3% and Madhya Pradesh 37.3%.
• Major states in the bottom ranks include Odisha (13.2%), Maharashtra (17.3%), and Kerala (17.3%).

The worst performance has been from the Union Territories. The utilization of funds in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu was 0.0% (not a single rupee was spent out of the fund of Rs 39.2 crore). Ladakh has used only 3.7%, Andaman and Nicobar has used only 6.9%, and the country's capital Delhi and Chandigarh have used only 9.5% of the funds.

54 MPs did not spend a single rupee

Talking about the personal report cards of MPs, a very shocking figure has come to light that 54 MPs have not spent even a single rupee from their funds. At the same time, the expenditure of many senior MPs has been less than 1%. According to the report of Empowered Indian…

1. MP from Secunderabad G. Kishan Reddy received funds of Rs 14.7 crore, but he spent only Rs 4 lakh (0.3%).
2. Kalyan MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde spent only Rs 3.25 lakh (0.2%) out of Rs 14.7 crore.
3. Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat spent only Rs 4.91 lakh (0.3%) out of Rs 14.7 crore.
4. The performance of Prataprao Jadhav (0.8%) from Buldhana and Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana Kartikeya Sharma (0.6%) were also very poor.

On the contrary, some MPs have spent more than 80% of the funds in their constituencies. These include Arun Kumar Sagar (87.3%), Mithilesh Kumar (87.1%), Geeta alias Chandraprabha (85.5%) and Javed Ali Khan (81.1%) from Uttar Pradesh. Whereas, K. of Mizoram. Vanlalvena (84.7%) and S. of Nagaland. Phangnon Cognac (84.0%) is also among the top performers.

Where is the money going?

Under the scheme, 112 types of works are allowed in 12 categories. Despite this, data shows that 71% of the work has been limited to just 3 main areas.

1. Electricity: Maximum 23,440 recommendations (26.4%) were made only in the energy sector. Most of these are for street lights.
2. Roads and Bridges: Roads came second with 21,475 works (24.2%).
3. Community Hall: It is at third place with 17,921 works (20.2%).

According to experts, street lights, road patches and community buildings are the most visible works on which MLAs or MPs can easily get their name written. That's why more money is spent on these.

Neglect of agriculture and health

• A large population of India is dependent on agriculture, yet only 37 recommendations were made across the country for works like crop protection and training centres.
• Only 1,322 works (1.5%) were recommended for public health, the total cost of which is Rs 120 crore.
• Of the 10,702 works in the drinking water and sanitation category, 63.5% of the money was spent on temporary items like tube wells, hand pumps and mobile water tankers, while long-term pipeline projects were left behind.

The huge difference between the allocation of Rs 8,265 crore and the expenditure of Rs 2,192 crore raises many serious questions. On paper, the architecture of the MPLADS scheme is very strong, including third-party evaluation, reviews and RTI compliance. But the ground reality shows that sectors like health and agriculture are craving for funds. This gap raises serious questions between the real intentions of the MPs and the facilities available to the public.

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