The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday decided that all its Members of Parliament would donate Rs. 50 lakh each from their Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds for relief and rehabilitation work in the flood-affected areas of Jammu & Kashmir.
The CPI (M) has 18 MPs, nine in each House. The CPI(M) contribution to the nation-wide relief and rehabilitation effort would, thus, stand at Rs. 9 crore.
A party release said the rules of the MPLADS provide for “such a prescribed amount of contribution by MPs in the event of a national disaster.”
Last weekend, party leader in the Rajya Sabha Sitaram Yechury wrote to Chairman Hamid Ansari requesting that instructions be issued to allow members to donate part of their MPLADS funds for relief and rehabilitation work in J&K as has been the practice after natural calamities.
