THE Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved Tk 6076-crore ‘Important Rural Infrastructure Development on Priority Basis Project (phase-2) under which 284 MPs, except 16 from the city corporations and women MPs elected from reserved seats will get Tk 20 crore each in next five years. The figure stands out quite big that the lawmakers will spend on their will. The government however tend to justify the allocation saying lawmakers as elected representatives of the people may be given the money to take care of local needs. The Planning Ministry claims lawmakers will not spend the fund according to their wish. The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) will use it on law makers’ recommendation and it has also included a hefty list of rural projects where the money may go. This may be correct or may not as the past experience shows. But question arises as to why lawmakers should have special fund when local government bodies are at work, in addition to many ongoing national projects to handle local problems under existing budgetary allocations. Questions have also arisen about the accountability of the lawmakers who are elected to Parliament in a highly flawed election. In the real sense they are not accountable to the people. In the critics eyes it is a “Happy project for MPs” because they are free to use the fund and it prompts them to say much of this public money may remain unaccounted and go to local politics. The serious issue here is that when the government is failing to provide enough funds to many priority projects at the national level, why it is so important to fatten the MPs with so much money without clear justification. Development statistics recently released by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) showed the gap between the rich and the poor in the country in terms of access to jobs, education and health services is only widening and it demands more pro-poor income distribution at the national level. Such arbitrary allocation to MPs is not supportive to distributive justice. A news item in a national daily early this week said the ruling party lawmaker and acting general secretary of Bangladesh Mohila Awami League Pinu Khan has totally misappropriated an amount of over Tk 13 lakh; which she had received to build a rural road at Duhar-Nobabgong area. Project document showed the road has been successfully completed but a spot visit showed no mark of a road in the locality. This is a development not visible to public eyes; it only exists in paper and so accepted as the local people have no say all about it. People are most genuinely unhappy to see that their money is used too generously by the government to buy political loyalty against them. The result is that the people, whether they can afford it or not, are helpless victims of corruption. The MPs not being elected do not have to worry about how hard-pressed or angry the people are by such misuse of their money. This cannot be the way to run a government or remain in power being encouraged by greedy ones.
