MP urges PM to restore MPLAD scheme
MEERUT: Flagging the “very serious situation” arising due to the spread of coronavirus in his parliamentary constituency, Lok Sabha MP from Amroha Kunwar Danish Ali on Tuesday urged PM Narendra Modi to restore the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) so that lawmakers, including he, could help people by installing oxygen plants in their constituencies and provide for other healthcare needs in the face of the second wave of the pandemic.
As per the decision of the Union government, the MPLAD funds for the years 2020-21 and 2021-22 were suspended in April last year with the aim of fighting Covid and providing medical facilities throughout the country. “The people of Amroha Lok Sabha constituency are in the grip of the pandemic. The disease has spread from village to village...There is a huge shortage of medicines, beds, oxygen and other medical facilities necessary to deal with this disease but there is hardly any medical support to save precious lives,” Ali said in his letter to the PM.
“As a representative of the constituency at such a time, I am very sad to see the sufferings of the people. The district administration is expressing its helplessness in providing relief to the people of my constituency and saving their lives,” he added. “In this crisis, I would like to state that during the first wave of the pandemic in the country in 2020, I also donated my one month’s salary to the PMCARES fund,” the MP said.
“No notable medical facility has been provided in my parliamentary constituency till date with the PMCARES or MPLAD scheme’s suspended funds. Because of this, the people of my constituency are facing great difficulties in this crisis of pandemic and are facing untimely death due to non-availability of basic medical infrastructure,” Ali claimed.
“As a representative of my people, I, therefore, request you to immediately release the funds to all the MPs of the country that have been withheld for two years (2020-21 and 2021-22) under the MPLAD scheme so that I and all other MPs could try to save the lives by setting up oxygen plants in their parliamentary constituencies and providing relief and all other necessary facilities to the victims,” the Amroha MP said.
Meanwhile, Amroha district magistrate Umesh Mishra claimed that medical facilities in the district were at par with any other district.
He claimed that 450 beds for Covid patients had been created and there was no shortage of oxygen.
He also said many legislators in the district had given their MLA local area development fund (Vidhayak Nidhi) for installing oxygen plants. The DM further said three oxygen plants had already been set up there by diverting corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.
Regarding spread of the pandemic in rural areas of Amroha, Mishra said the infection rate was much higher in the ongoing second wave and that they were doing everything possible to prevent the spread of virus besides providing treatment to the infected people. Having a population of over 18 lakh, Amroha district has 1,133 villages in six blocks and 601 gram panchayats.