This thought passed through my mind as I was driving yesterday and saw familiar wordings on the board of a bus stop shelter:

This bus (stop) shelter has been provided by Shri [Insert Name of the MP here] under the MPLAD Scheme.

Says a lot about our self-serving service-minded politicians, doesn’t it? According to the Members Of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme,

…each MP has the choice to suggest to the District Collector for, works to the tune of Rs.2 Crores per annum to be taken up in his/her constituency. The Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament can recommand works in one or more districts in the State from where he/she has been elected. The Nominated Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha may select any one or more Districts from any one State in the Country for implementation of their choice of work under the scheme.

Quick arithmetic tells me that Rs. 1604 crores of taxpayer money is allocated annually to this noble scheme. And how is this spent? Looking at the “area development schemes” in Bangalore alone, the only prominent “development works” that stares at you is the bit about the bus stop shelters. A typical bus shelter comprises the following:

• The roof of the shelter, which is about 15-30ft/10/15ft


• A bench that can seat about 8-10 people


• A pretty artistic board (yes, it is lit up at night, is quite impressive) that displays the name of the bus stop, but more prominently displays the name of the MP who built it (read: paid the dough)

Even if I stretch my imagination, this wouldn’t have costed more than a lakh. Say the area of the said MP contains about 20 bus stops (again, I’m exaggerating the figure, but let’s be fair to the people who serve us). That makes it Rs.20 lakhs.

And this is only about the bus stop shelters. Other “development works” include asphalting of roads, building new libraries, and the like for which accounts are shown meticulously. However, it is anybody’s guess why government contracts are the most lucrative: over invoicing and the rest. The expenditure statement is amusing. You’d really think they spent all that money in making our lives better. I digress.

The significance of having the MP’s name on the board shouldn’t be missed:

1. It provides the illusion that the MP is really interested to serve the people.
2. To the MP, this illusion translates into votes.
3. It obscures the fact that (although bus stop shelters are important) the money isn’t being used to solve genuine/problems that merit a higher priority. It is no use erecting a hundred bus stop shelters on Bannerghatta potholes road without first making a road there.

The real issue in this case, is this: nobody really cares about the construction quality of something as trivial as a bus stop shelter, whereas Bangalore roads turn into huge craters the moment a few drops of rain fall on them.

Postscript: There’s also a Works Monitoring “Software” on the MPLAD website. Those interested can download it (a Zip file).

Tags: Commentary, Indian Politics