50% funds allotted for ongoing MPLADS projects lapse

Parliamentary panel calls it a serious lapse with negative consequences.

Virtually half of a belated ₹2,200 crore allotted for completing ongoing MPLADS projects in 2020-21 simply lapsed, as the Finance Ministry granted “barely a week” to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to release the funds — inviting the ire of the Standing Committee on Finance. The resultant funding crunch would have hit several local area development projects under implementation across the country, especially in the five States that went to polls this year as no funds were released for these States and constituencies citing the Model Code of Conduct. Spending under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) had already halved before the government suspended the scheme for two years in April last year and diverted the funds for managing the COVID-19 pandemic. From ₹5,012 crore spent during 2018-19, expenditure of just ₹2,491.45 crore was taken up under the scheme in 2019-20.