Another sting: 7 MPs caught on camera [ Tuesday, December 20, 2005 12:01:25 amTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
NEW DELHI: Its sting season. Elected representatives had barely recovered from Operation Duryodhan, which exposed 11 MPs taking bribes in exchange for raising questions in Parliament, when a television channel on Monday unveiled "Operation Chakravyuh."
The latest sting operation exposed MPs asking for cuts ranging from 5% to 45% for sanctioning funds under the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) a kitty of Rs 8,000 crore to be spent at the discretion of members of both Houses.
The sting, which comes at a time when the political class is already reeling under the aftermath of the cash-for-query scam, also featured lacklustre names with the exception of the flamboyant and controversial former Goa chief minister and south Goa MP Churchill Alemao of Congress. BJP once again had a higher head count of MPs from Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) MP Faggan Singh Kulaste, Sidhi MP Chandra Pratap Singh, who has already been tainted in "Operation Duryodhan", and Ramswaroop Koli from Bayana in Rajasthan.
Sakshi Maharaj, who owes his current Rajya Sabha term to Samajwadi Party, started out as a saffronite. SP, however, was represented by an authentic Samajwadi in Parliaments new hall of infamy in Paras Nath Yadav from Jaunpur. Also included was Bahajun Samaj Partys Isham Singh from Saharanpur.
Outrage was instant. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who incidentally had launched a strong campaign to whittle down the discretion of MPs in implementation of MPLADS, said he was ashamed. SP, which escaped unscathed from the previous sting, promptly asked Paras Nath Yadav to resign. BJPs Arun Shourie demanded action against his party colleagues embroiled in the latest embarrassment to Parliament.
MPLADS funds provide Rs 2 crore annually to each MP. The money is required to be spent in the development of the MPs constituency. Though the funds are not directly handed to MPs, they have a decisive say in the identification and execution of the schemes, in many cases handed over to contractors of choice. While there are many examples where the fund went for genuine schemes-such as the development of the Biotechnology Centre at IIT Kanpur from Arun Shouries corpus, there have been growing allegations of MPs collecting hefty cuts from contractors.
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