Delhi: The Delhi government has increased the local area development (LAD) fund for each member of legislative assembly (MLA) from ₹4 crore to ₹7 crore, urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj announced in the Delhi assembly on Friday.
The increase will help the MLAs to spend more money on the development of the areas under their constituencies, he added.
“In the last two financial years due to the pandemic, no fund was released under MLA-LAD. Due to Covid, the income of the government had also dipped. Then for the next two years, ₹4 crore was given under the MLA-LAD fund. Now, for the 2023-24 financial year as well as the next year (2024-25), MLAs will get ₹7 crore. They have to do a lot of small work such as those related to water and sewer, installing open gyms in parks, development of internal roads, among other things,” said Bharadwaj.
In 2018-19 the Delhi cabinet increased the fund to ₹10 crore, but it was reduced to ₹4 crore due to Covid. A Delhi government official said that ₹10 crore was given to the MLAs in both years — 2018-19 and 2019-20. However, in 2020-21, no money was released, and in 2021-22 and 2022-23 the Delhi government only released ₹4 crore.
The MLA-LAD fund is given to all the sitting MLAs by the state government to be used for various small-budget development projects in their respective constituencies. Delhi has 70 MLAs out of which 62 are of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and 8 of the opposition BJP.
Leader of the opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the AAP government was hailing the hike of the MLA-LAD fund but there is nothing to celebrate.
“The government had hiked the fund to ₹10 crore in 2019. In the last four years, each MLA should have been given ₹40 crore but they have received only ₹15 crore. The government has not released ₹25 crore. I demand that the government release the pending money to all MLAs so that they can get development work done in their constituencies,” said Bidhuri.
In September 2020, the then urban development minister Satyendar Jain told the Delhi assembly that the funds were suspended because of Covid-related expenses. The Union cabinet also decided in April 2020 to suspend the MP-LAD fund of ₹5 core to each MP for two years so the money could be used to fight the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Delhi finance minister Atishi presented the first batch of supplementary demands for grants for the financial year 2023-2024 which were considered by the House and passed through a voice vote.
In 2022-23, the Delhi government made a provision of ₹300 crore in the annual budget for the MLA-LAD fund, and in 2023-24 budget as well ₹300 crore was earmarked for the fund. Bharadwaj said that ₹110 crore has been given in the revised estimate and the rest will be given in the 2024-25 budget.
A Delhi government official said that, among the funds allocated to the departments in the budget 2023-24, some unutilised funds have been returned to the government.
Of the money allocated for advertising to the directorate of information and publicity, ₹359 crore has been returned; the tourism department had a budget of ₹100 crore for shopping festivals, out of which ₹94.7 crore has been returned, said an official.
In the revised estimates, an additional budget of ₹471.41 crore has been earmarked to create additional school facilities and ₹85 crore for the renovation of school buildings. “On the instructions of the chief minister ₹650 crore has been given to the pensioners of DTC,” the official added.
An additional ₹1,033 crore has been given for the Delhi Jal Boad whose budget in the revised estimate was increased to ₹7,375 crore from ₹6,342 crore.
The assembly was adjourned at 3pm soon after a short duration discussion was initiated by AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak on “attempts of Bhartiya Janata Party to stop the regularisation of sanitation workers of Delhi’s municipal corporation”.
