Jharkhand legislators for retaining development funds

RANCHI - After Bihar decided to scrap the development funds of legislators, their counterparts in neighbouring Jharkhand are divided on this. A majority of them say the funds help in development and should be retained, while some favour the scrapping of the scheme.

The Bihar cabinet Friday decided in principle to scrap the Local Area Development (LAD) fund under which each legislator gets Rs.2 crore per annum. Jharkhand’s legislators each get Rs.3 crore per annum under LAD.

Jharkhand’s Bharatiya Janata Party former president and legislator Raghubar Das was in favour of ending the LAD funds.

We welcome the Bihar government’s decision to end the LAD funds. In Jharkhand, any such decision should be taken by evolving consensus. Even in Bihar, Nitish Kumar decided to end the funds by evolving consensus over the issue, Das told IANS.

Two BJP women legislators were, however, against the Bihar government’s decision.

The LAD funds should not be scrapped. Being a public representative, we have to fulfil the aspirations of the people. The LAD funds are used for development of the constituency, Maneka Sardar said.

Her views were echoed by Kunti Singh.

Majority of Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislators were not in favour of scrapping the LAD funds.

We are not favour of scrapping of such funds. Why party workers will approach us in absence of LAD funds? LAD funds purpose is to help legislators spend money for development of the area, said Jaggarnath Mahto, a JMM legislator.

Such decisions will help only ruling party legislators. The opposition parties legislators will face lots of difficulties by such decisions, Congress legislator K.N. Tripathy said.

A Congress legislator told IANS that misuse of LAD funds was rampant. “There is a need to check the corruption prevailing in the use of funds, he said.