New Delhi, April 6: Senior Indian National Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday welcomed centre's decision to slash salaries and pensions of Members of Parliament (MPs) in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The Thiruvananthapuram MP, however, was not happy with union cabinet's move to end MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) fund for two years and adding it to Consolidated Fund of India. MPLAD Funds Suspended For 2020-2022 to Make Consolidated Fund For Fight Against Coronavirus.

"Centre's decision to cut salaries &pensions of MPs is welcome. It's a good way for us to show solidarity w/people suffering across the country. But the Ordinance ending MPLADS funds for 2 years &pooling them into a Consolidated Fund run by the CentralGovt is problematic," Tharoor tweeted. Coronavirus Outbreak Live News Updates on April 6.

Shashi Tharoor's Tweet: 

In a subsequent tweet, he explained that MPLADS Fund is the only means used by an MP for development of their constituency. Tharoor illustrated his point by giving his own example. "I used mine to get urgently-needed rapid testkits & PPE to Thiruvananthapuram's health workers," the Congress leader said.

He further said that centralising MPLADS could lead to an irregularity of allocation of funds in COVID-19 fight. "To take one example, the Centre has allocated ₹157 cr of Disaster Response Mitigation Funds to Kerala, which has 314 COVID-19 cases, while Gujarat, with only 122 cases, gets ₹662 cr. Will this kind of imbalance also affect the reallocation of MPLADS funds?" Tharoor asked.

The Congress leader urged the Central government to revise its decision with regards to pool MPLAD fund. "In order to avoid such injustice, it's essential that MPLADS money continues to be spent constituency-wise. I urge the Govt to revise this decision by allowing MPs to earmark these funds for COVID-19 related expenditure to meet local needs &benefit the vulnerable. It's their job!" he wrote.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 06, 2020 06:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).