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| Govt to put legislators under radar over CDF expenditure | | No way to woo voters through tax payers' money! | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Sept 3: Legislators in J&K are going to be under the radar for the manner in which they are spending their allocated Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in their respective constituencies.
Sources privy to the development told Early Times that there have been mounting complaints being received over the way in which several legislators are found spending the CDF as per their likings while preferring some particular areas and ignoring some.
"This is mainly happening as the legislators want to woo their voters and they only spend on those areas where from they expect to get votes and other areas which are in dire need of the developmental activities are ignored for the sole reason that the legislator doesn't find any poll prospectus from that particular area. This is illegal and lid needs to be put on such a practice at an earliest," says an official privy to the development.
He added that there have been several cases in which crores of rupees were left unspent by the legislators because they did not want a particular area in their constituency to get benefited in any way.
Meanwhile, as per the insiders, the practice would soon cease to exist as the government has decided that it will keep a close vigil over the way in which a state legislator has spent his/her CDF amount and the questions about why a particular area has been bestowed with plethora of works while other areas in the same constituency have been ignored and undermined.
"The fact is that there is no accountability over where the legislator wants to spend his CDF amount. In real sense, it is peoples' money and people have every right to make the legislators accountable over the issue," says a senior official.
In May last year, J&K government hiked the CDF for legislators from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 3 crore. Legislators are granted CDF for local area development. Funds can be utilized by the legislators as per fixed caps on different welfare and development programs in the respective areas of the legislators.
There are 125 legislators in both the upper as well as in the lower house of the state and a total of Rs 373 crore is spent on local area development through the legislators.
So far, the legislators in Jammu and Kashmir are given a freehand to use the funds as per their choice and usually the practice is done usually to appease the voters.
"I fail to understand that if it is to woo the voters, why should people bear the brunt and spend their own money on these practices. It should have been an impartial process in which all would get benefited. Why a pick and choose is done and why the government has been maintaining a stoic silence over such a questionable practice," says a social worker based in central Kashmir.
He added that the government needs to address the issue at an earliest so that the practice is stopped and the legislators are made accountable over where and how they are spending the public money. |
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