Thrissur: The Union government announces schemes such as Prasad, Amrutham and Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana without allotting additional funds for MPs, C.N. Jayadevan, MP, has said. “There is no point in announcing such schemes without allocation of funds,” he said while speaking to reporters here on Thursday on the allocation and the projects undertaken using the Local Area Development funds. “No funds were allocated to the Smart City project for Ernakulam and Thiruvanathapuram districts which were chosen for the project,” he said.
“Guruvayur is included in the ‘Prasad’ project of the infrastructural development of temple towns, but no fund has yet been released. The same is the case with ‘Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana' in which an MP has been asked to adopt a backward village.” In Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, a total of '18.52 crore had been spent in the past three years for developmental activities from the MP LAD funds, he said. The utilisation of funds in 2014-15 was 75.05 percent while it was 96.17 per cent in 15-16.
“Focus of allocating the funds was on education and enhancing facilities for students in schools. Besides, funds have been given for road and drinking water projects,” he said. The other projects which have been allotted funds are Manalur steel bridge ('2 crore), Punkunnam Railway Station and Vitnjan Sagar Project ('50 lakh each). Funds were also used for smart classes and for buying computers in schools, Mr Jayadevan said.
