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Former Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Minister and BJP leader Suresh Bhardwaj slammed the Congress party in the state on Thursday, claiming that MPLAD money was not released for public development and welfare in the Shimla constituency while the Congress was in power.
While addressing the media in Shimla, the BJP leader said, "The late Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri from the Congress party represented Shimla parliamentary constituency six times but did not spend MPLAD funds for development in the area." Notably, the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) is a government-funded program that gives each Member of Parliament (MP) an annual entitlement of Rs 5 crore. The funds are released in two instalments of Rs 2.5 crore each, and are non-lapsable, meaning they can be carried forward to the next year if not released in a given year. The MPLADS's goal is to enable MPs to recommend development projects in their constituencies that address local needs and create lasting community assets. Bhardwaj further said that it was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who introduced the MPLADs to the people in the district and that the current sitting BJP MP for the Shimla constituency, Suresh Kumar Kashyap has equally distributed funds to the people for development. Adding further he said that the Congress party has fielded the late KD Sultanpuri's son, Vinod Sultanpuri as a candidate from the Shimla Parliamentary segment. "Every MP gets a local area development fund. After 1990, the MP fund was started with one crore per annum and now it is 5 crore rupees. KD Sultanpuri represented Shimla parliamentary constituency six times and now his son is the Congress candidate. During the MPship of Sultanpuri, no such funds were distributed," said Suresh Bhardwaj. "Whereas BJP MP, Suresh Kashyap has distributed MP funds equally in the constituency he distributed and spent 19,30,45,875 rupees under MP fund. 72,66,500 rupees for Shimla district, 54,47,875 rupees for Solan and 65,93,084 rupees for the Sirmaur district were spent equally as per population ratio," he said. The BJP leader also said that Suresh Kashyap has played an important role in bringing Shimla under the Smart City project as an MP. "Rs 309 crore was spent for IIM Nahan, Green Corridor NH707 has been built and a Medical devise park is being built at Nalagarah in Himachal Pradesh under the special efforts of Suresh Kashyap as a BJP MP," Bhardwaj said further. (ANI)
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