Shillong, May 1:There is a demand for doing away with the MLA scheme after Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong termed it as tool to help his supporters.
The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) on Monday stressed need to do away with the implementation of the MLA scheme in the state.
Tynsong, during an election campaign at Sohiong constituency said that the “MLA scheme is meant to benefit only those voters/supporters who support the party/candidate during the election and that all 60 MLAs are doing the same”.
“His (Tynsong) statement has made it clear that the Rs 12.5 Cr of each MLA is a freebie used by politicians for political benefits which is against the guidelines of the Election Commission of India,” KHNAM vice president Thomas Passah said in a statement.
“Looking at the statement of Dy CM, it will be right to say that the MLA scheme should be done away with and all development work/activities should be channelized through the BDO, District Administration, in this way we can ensure better execution of work, timely completion and accountability. This will also ensure that businessmen are not attracted to politics for business purposes,” he said.
Passah said most of the MLAs implement the schemes funded at the cost of exchequer through a committee which is formed and headed by the MLA himself which allows them to manage corruption.
“When we talk about MLA scheme in urban areas, we have seen that the success of its implementation is very low, wherein the same work is being done again and again because the quality of work is very low thereby wasting the public money. We have also seen the MLA mostly accumulates the 5 years’ amount for use one year before election, which clearly implies that they are using the scheme for political mileage,” he said.
