New Delhi, Jul 7 (IANS): The cabinet Thursday hiked the annual allocation under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) from Rs.2 crore to Rs.5 crore from the current fiscal.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the enhanced annual allocation would involve a total annual expenditure of Rs.3,950 crore and amounted to an enhancement of Rs.2,370 crore from the earlier Rs.1,580 crore per annum.

The cabinet also approved annual administrative expenses of two percent of the annual outlay under MPLADS to be given to districts or states for proper implementation and monitoring of the scheme. The administrative expenses would be met from within the outlay of Rs.5 crore per annum for each member of parliament.

The cabinet approved an additional annual allocation of Rs.5 crore to the ministry of statistics and programme implementation for monitoring through independent agencies and training of state or district officials.

Soni said raising the annual allocation under MPLADS will result in better fulfilment of the needs of the people and create more durable community assets based on locally felt needs.

Launched in 1993-94, MPLADS enables parliamentarians to recommend works for creation of durable community assets based on locally felt needs in areas such as drinking water, education, public health, sanitation and roads.

Parliamentarians had recommended 13.87 lakh works under the scheme till March and 11.24 lakh works have been completed.

Since the scheme's launch, Rs.22,490.57 crore has been released till March with Rs.20,454.56 crore having been spent. The percentage cumulative utilisation over cumulative release is 90.95 percent.