However, Bajpai ruled out any possibility of an epic battle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections between Sonia Gandhi and Arun Jaitley.
Member of Parliament can now allocate funds from their local area development scheme kitty for rural employment guarantee programmes. The move that comes just ahead of Budget is aimed at providing the much-needed fiscal cushion to operate the UPA's most ambitious social security programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
The Supreme Court upheld the Constitutional validity of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development scheme under which members of Parliament are allocated Rs 2 crore annually for development of their constituencies.
The government has said it is constantly working towards reviewing the improving the MPLAD scheme.
The Deepa Thoon controversy, if not allowed to die a natural death, could take the election focus away from the anti-incumbency impacting the DMK and into the secular space. Stalin would love to have it that way, all over again, after the three past elections, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Unlike other government projects, most funds under MPLADS get spent - now to see if they're well-spent.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday directed all party Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly to donate their one month salary for relief work in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand as the magnitude of the flash flood tragedy continued to unfold, taking the death toll in the rain fury to 190.
CPI (M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury has outsourced the planning of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme in West Bengal to IIM-A students. Students will be involved closely with the constituency's role in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. 4-5 students will work on this project and will be guided by faculty advisors. This project will enable students to understand the working of government and public policy.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved restoration and continuation of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), which was suspended in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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.
Contesting Priyanka Gandhi's claim that her brother Rahul had done a lot of development in his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said she was unaware that the Congress vice president had failed to even spend the fund provided to members of Parliament for development in the area.
In a bonanza for lawmakers, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday announced that the constituency fund of Members of Parliament will be more than doubled to Rs 5 crore per year from April 1.
In a unique initiative, students from IIM-Ahmedabad will work with Communist Party of India - Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury and help in planning for the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme this year. They will be involved in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Provisions of the Right to Information Act will be analysed. Students will assess funds spent by the constituency and create a monitoring system.
'The pace of disbursement and project recommendation picks up as the tenure of the House draws near and usually all amount is released.'
The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Thursday revoked the disqualification of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Afzal Ansari as a member of the Lower House after the Supreme Court conditionally suspended his conviction in a Gangsters Act case.
We take a look at those MPs who are yet to spend their MPLADs funds
Redevelopment of the Central Vista Avenue, stretching from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate and has a deadline of December 2021, has achieved 60 per cent of physical progress, the Union housing and urban affairs ministry told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Lok Sabha members of Parliament named in a television channel expose about corruption in MP Local Area Development scheme have filed their replies to the inquiry committee, set up by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
The Congress, Left parties, Trinamool Congress and some others were in the forefront of this attack on the government, which is set to garner around Rs 7,900 crore through the decision.
The three-time MP from Birbhum said she held talks with Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and he addressed all issues raised by her.
The joint statement was issued by retired DGPs Julio Ribeiro, Prakash Singh, P K Hormis Tharakan, Kamal Kumar, Jacob Punnoose, Sanjeev Dayal, Jayanto Choudhury and N Ramachandran.
The government has increased the budgetary allocation.
While Justice Kant and Bhuyan delivered the majority verdict, Justice Datta dismissed Ansari's appeal against the Allahabad high court order.
'Dear PM, INC supports the salary cut for MPs. Please note that MPLAD is meant to execute developmental works in the constituency. Suspending it is a huge disservice to the constituents and will undermine the role and functions of MP,' Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.
The standing committee on home ministry on Friday unanimously recommended to the government that the devastation caused by floods in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh be declared a national calamity.
If as critics point out, the environmental impact assessment study was commissioned only after the auction process got underway with not all the stakeholders getting to know of it, then the government has already compromised the trust it could have enjoyed with Kerala's public including its coastal communities, points out Shyam G Menon.
In Kerala's society, known for its high material standard of living, plunging into a state of having nothing overnight can be terrible for one's social standing and sense of self-esteem. Rehabilitation entails piecing a community back together after a disturbance and while its aim is noble, the act of reassembling will bring alive disparities and inequalities, explains Shyam G Menon.
Sachin Tendulkar and Rekha's tenures in the Rajya Sabha end this month.
Replying to the debate on the bill, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that funds are needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and "charity should begin from home".
Suresh Prabhu's maiden Railway Budget presentation, peppered with personal references and quotes, turned out to be a smooth affair.
The BJP may win more seats in the February 5 assembly election, but not enough to trump AAP, notes Ramesh Menon.
The PM was addressing the BJP lawmakers at a two-day training programme for them that began in New Delhi on Saturday.
Rediff Labs analysed the data on MPLADS to see how the money given to each constituency was spent.
'They have brought out a provision whereby the medium of education in the Hindi speaking states will be Hindi even in higher education institutions like IIT, IIM, etc.' 'Think about the students from the south who get admission in the IITs in Kanpur or Delhi or the IIMs in various places.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian economy and a possible second stimulus to boost sectors hit hard by the pandemic. Modi held discussions with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as the pandemic hit sectors from small industries to the aviation sector hard with millions of jobs at stake.
When it comes to the Congress and Wayanad, the only way the scepticism in the minds of some in Kerala may be addressed is by the Gandhi family proving that they are more than a passing caravan in town, reports Shyam G Menon.
With the Modi government close to completing its two years in office, a new survey on Saturday said nearly half of the respondents (49 per cent) feel "no change" in their living standards while another 15 per cent feel the situation has actually worsened.
Why MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy and his party, the BJP, are angry with Pappu Yadav.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started holding interactive sessions with his party MPs at which he wants them to open up. R Rajagopalan/Rediff.com reports on an unusual political exercise.
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