The MLA Local Area Development Scheme (MLALADS) has long been a subject of controversy. A detailed analysis of how Rs two crore per year is spent by each MLA will reveal numerous flaws and perhaps even mala-fide spending on CGI sheets and other private utilities with little to show as public assets. Meghalaya must be the state that spends the highest amount on CGI sheets. Whether the transaction is only on paper or whether the CGI sheets are tallied against the names of the beneficiaries is not confirmed because the Deputy Commissioners are not in a position to audit the manner in which the money is spent by each MLA. This leaves the gate open for all kind of misuse. The funds for the MLALADS come from the public exchequer and are to be used for public good and not for private benefit. The funds are for creation of public assets. Giving water tanks or other utilities to individual households usually means that those names are carefully selected from amongst those that are known to have voted the MLA in the last election. And it is not difficult to identify such voters in our personalized politics.
Former Home Minister, RG Lyngdoh was very clear in his views that the MLALADS is simply a scheme to help the sitting MLA win votes because he/she usually spends the bulk of the amount in the penultimate year just ahead of the elections. Other MLAs are tight-lipped because they know how helpful the Scheme is in helping them win elections. Clearly the MLALADS needs a review. A Scheme that is bad in law in that it only extends benefits to a few and leaves out many others, cannot be allowed to continue in its present form since the manner in which it is spent is injudicious. RTIs on the manner in which MLAs spend their LADS have already revealed stark irregularities. What Meghalaya lacks is a penetrative research into the use and abuse of the Scheme. Will NEHU institute a research on how this Scheme creates societal fissures? The MLALADS is not a poverty alleviation scheme and cannot be treated as such.