A parliamentary committee will visit various parts of the city on Saturday to assess 123 works under MPLADS (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme).
Of the 176 development works recommended by the three MPs in Chennai from 2009, 123 have been approved. The committee that included Members of Parliament A.K.S. Vijayan, S.D. Shariq, Raghuveer Singh Meena and Sanjay Dina Patil will inspect work in Ashok Nagar, Villivakkam and Royapuram.
The works range from bus-shelters to rubble-mounted seawalls to save fishing settlements in the metropolitan area. Most of them are being implemented by Chennai Corporation and the Public Works Department.
Member of Parliament of North Chennai Constituency T.K.S. Elangovan proposed 55 works during the period at an estimated cost of Rs.6.47 crore. 51 works at Rs.6 crore have been approved.
Member of Parliament for Central Chennai Dayanidhi Maran proposed 13 works at Rs.13.42 crore in the period. Seven of these have been approved at an estimated cost of Rs.3.46 crore.
South Chennai MP C. Rajendran recommended 108 works at an estimate of Rs.17.10 crore. At least 65 works at Rs.9.42 crore have been approved.
Mr. Elangovan said his MPLADS funds were used for construction of rubble mounted seawalls in Nettukuppam. “This effort saved an entire fishing settlement,” he added. He said that often, competition prevailed between the MPs and MLAs to allocate funds for a good civic development project in a locality. For instance, his recommendation on the construction of a library in Tiruvottiyur was rejected because the MLA of the locality wanted to use his MLALADS funds for the same purpose. Works at an estimate of Rs.2 crore are pending because of the delay in release of money, he said.
The parliamentary committee has already assessed works under MPLADS in various parts of the State. The allocation for Tamil Nadu stood at Rs.477 crore and works to the tune of Rs.363 crore is underway. Seventy per cent of funds under MPLADS have already been spent for various projects in the State. About Rs.6,475 crores have been allocated for various projects throughout the country under the scheme and works at an estimated cost of Rs. 4,526 crore are under way.
