Bhubaneswar, July 21: Cutting across party lines, Several members of the Odisha Assembly on Thursday demanded the state government hike the size of the MLA Local Area Development (LAD) fund.
In a question, treasury bench MLA Sanjeev Mallik said the cost of construction materials and other things have increased many times over the years and Rs 3 crore allotted as MLA LAD fund is inadequate to meet the requirement of the people.
He said out of the Rs 3 crore while Rs 2 crore will be provided for overall development, Rs 50 lakh will be utilised for road construction and the remaining Rs 50 lakh for education-related infrastructure development.
BJP Chief Whip Mohan Majhi demanded the government to raise the MLA LAD Fund from the existing Rs three crore to Rs 10 crore. He was supported by his party colleague Bhaskar Madhei.
Majhi said since several states have hiked MLA LAD fund to Rs 5 crore and above and Odisha should also increase the size of the fund.
Santosh Singh Saluja (Congress) demanded that instead of allocating Rs 50 lakh for road construction and Rs 50 lakh for education-related infrastructure development, the amount of the MLA LAD fund should be increased to Rs three crore.
BJD MLA Latika Pradhan also wanted the MLA LAD fund to be increased.
The Minister in his reply said there is no plan to increase the MLA LAD fund now.
However, the Speaker asked the Minister to hold discussion with the officers and apprise the house if the size of the fund could be raised to Rs three crore instead of allocating Rs 50 lakh each for education and road construction.
With UNI Inputs…
