MPs can buy ambulances, not hearses

new delhi: not all mps are impressed with the what they get to do with their constituency development allowance. they are allowed to spend it on an ambulance, even a crematorium. but they can't buy a hearse with it. an mp can buy a mobile dispensary, or an ambulance for a government hospital or a reputed institution out of the rs 2 crore he gets every year under the members of parliament local area development scheme (mplads).but even invoking "secularism" will not get him a different set of wheels. as vijay goel, now a minister of state in the prime minister's office, found out. he wanted to buy four "mobile buses" (his words) or vans which will carry people for free in delhi's congested jama masjid-chandni chowk area. his request could be treated as a special case, he suggested, "in view of the secular character of the area and need for smooth flow of traffic." the request was one of the several turned down last month by a parliamentary committee on mplads. most of them were referred to the committee by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation to which the suggestions were sent first. a van for the dead was rajya sabha mp karan singh's idea, backed by delhi government. a delhi minister wrote to the ministry reminding that mplads allowed construction of crematoriums and purchase of ambulances. and a hearse was "only an essential extension or adjunct to the aforesaid facilities." "logically, therefore, the purchase of hearse van should not be viewed as a significant departure from the guidelines," he argued. in vain. n k p salve wanted to use his money for buying a "dental van", but was told by the nagpur district collector that the fund could be used only for an ambulance. "the anomaly is far too obvious," the mp then wrote to najma heptulla, rajya sabha deputy chairperson. it didn't work. against this background, ramakant s angle stood no chance. he wanted to purchase garbage collection vehicles to keep goa clean for his people and the tourists. the idea was struck down, despite angle's reminder that night soil disposal systems could be purchased out of the fund. the committee does have reasons though for turning down the requests. the mplads is supposed to build durable assets for the community. guidelines for the scheme are subject to change, but they don't generally favour anything which involves recurring costs on maintenance. or anything which helps individuals, and not the community. this was seen as the problem with jaysingrao patil's idea. the minister of state for mines wanted to distribute saplings to two lakh householders, for them to plant anywhere they chose. he tried and failed to sell it as a "special forestry" project, which the guidelines allow. another mp's idea of giving away rotating sprinklers to farmers was similarly trashed, though money for building irrigation embankments would have been considered well spent. the committee also turned down a proposal to repair an irrigation canal in maharashtra's hingoli district. at times however the committee has decided not to go by the book, for the greater good. though the guidelines do not allow the construction of office and residential buildings, the committee gave parliamentary affairs minister pramod mahajan permission to spend his entire annual allowance on rebuilding 550 houses in an earthquake-shattered gujarat village.