Maverick Member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu has achieved yet another milestone in his career. He has outdone colleagues across party lines by becoming one of two legislators who spent the most amount of Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme funds in their respective constituencies.
Placed marginally behind Trinamool Congress' Mamta Banerjee, the Bharatiya Janata Party firebrand has topped the list of MPs from his state in the usage of MPLADS funds.
According to a report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Sidhu spent Rs 5.35 crore, an impressive 90 per cent of the Rs 6 crore fund, while Banerjee spent Rs 5.39 crore.
The non-lapsable fund scheme cumulative up to three years (ending 2007) allots Rs 2 crore to every MP for expenditure on development work in his constituency.
Sidhu has outperformed party bigwigs and opposition stalwarts by large margins. Even United Progressive Alliance president Sonia Gandhi [Images] and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav spent only Rs 2.14 crore and Rs 2.01 crore, respectively, from the fund in the past three years.
While BJP President L K Advani has recorded a Rs 1.40 crore expenditure, former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee could manage just 1.70 crore.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi [Images] also spent the same amount in Amethi while actors like Vinod Khanna and Raj Babbar fared a little better with respective amounts of Rs 3.03 crore and Rs 1.99 crore.
Congress leaders Govinda [Images] and Priya Dutt from Mumbai, though, spent Rs 2.77 crore and Rs 2.39 crore, respectively.
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