50% Delhi MLAs have not spent a penny from allocated funds

Almost 50% of the total Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs in Delhi out of a total of 67 MLAs have not spent a single penny from the Local Area Development (LAD) funds allocated to every MLA in the last one year, while all Members of Parliament from Delhi have spent a substantial amount from their respective LAD funds, according to reports available on the websites of the Delhi Department of Ur- ban Development (DDUD) and Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme. According to the DDUD website, 33 of the 67 AAP MLAs have neither spent nor initiated any projects for the development of their local areas and constituencies. All the three BJP MLAs from Delhi have spent more than Rs 90 lakh from their MLALAD funds in 20152016. However, only 10 MLAs have spent more than Rs 1 crore from their available fund of Rs 4 crore per year, while about 10 MLAs have spent less than Rs 50 lakh.

Scoring the highest, Amanatullah Khan, AAP MLA from Okhla, has spent almost 95% of his available funds in 2015-16, followed by Sahi Ram (AAP) from Tughlakabad, who spent around 93% of his available funds. Third in the ranking is BJP MLA Vijender Gupta, who spent around 70% of his funds in developmental work in his constituency, ranging from construction of drains, roads and lanes to open gyms and benches. The lowest expenditure is by AAP MLA from Moti Nagar, Shiv Charan Goel, who has spent only Rs 4.61 lakh out of Rs 90 lakh to lay sewer lines. An in-depth analysis of the reports on DDUD website shows that none of the senior AAP leaders has spent or carried out any significant work in their constituencies. While Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has spent only Rs 40.90 lakh to install CCTV cameras in his New Delhi constituency, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has spent Rs 52.96 lakh to construct culverts and improve roads. Cabinet ministers such as Satyendra Kumar and ousted Cabinet minister in the Kejriwal government, Sandeep Kumar have not spent a rupee for any development work in their respective constituencies, as per the data available. On the other hand, ousted AAP MLA from Bijwasan, Colonel Devendra Sehrawat has 13 projects in his constituency, work on which is going on.

Satark Nagrik Sangathan, a voluntary organisation has accused the Delhi government and the MLAs of failing to maintain transparency in regard to MLALAD funds and expenditure details as mandated by the Central Information Commission (CIC) order dated 4 February 2011.

Anjali Bharadwaj, founder of Satark Nagrik Sangathan, told The Sunday Guardian, “The CIC order mandates that all the MLAs and MPs are supposed to disclose their expenditures and project works, both ongoing and completed, in a public and digital platform for easy access to people. But all have failed to do so. It is very difficult to access any information on the MLALAD scheme, as there is no single digital platform from where one can track or check the work being done by their respective MLAs in Delhi.” “There is no information available in the public domain regarding the work being done or the money being spent from the MLALAD scheme by the sitting MLAs in Delhi, and the online platform available in the Delhi government website opens up a string of websites only to