Parliamentarians will soon be allowed to spend up to `10 lakhs annually from the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for providing assistance to the physically-challenged people.
According to a statement by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MOSPI), the new provision will come into the effect from June 1.
“The government has received representations, requesting that, members of Parliament be allowed to spend some amount of the MPLADS funds in assisting physically-challenged people,” it said. “It is accordingly directed that henceforth MPs will be allowed to spend a maximum of `10 lakhs per year from their MPLADS funds for giving assistance to the physically-challenged people,” the statement said.
The government had recently decided to increase the annual entitlement under MPLADS from `2 crores to `5 crores.
“This necessitates a re-look at the entire gamut of operational guidelines and modalities governing the implementation of the MPLADS in order to make them simpler, more user friendly and to ensure that MPs can use the fund to fulfil the urgent needs at the grass-root level in time every year,” the statement said.
It said representations have been made arguing that physically-challenged persons face severe hardships and the government’s policy is to take steps to ameliorate their condition.
“The issue has been considered at length in this ministry,” the MOSPI said.