IIM-A students to help MPs spend wisely

Ahmedabad: The country's premier B-school is all set to help MPs in effectively spend their grants so that maximum number of people can reap benefits.

A group of students of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has taken up a project to study the spendings and suggest changes for the Rs two crore grant given each year to parliamentarians under the MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme.

The students have tied up with the likes of CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and Arun Shourie of BJP and are planning to rope in some Gujarat-based parliamentarians to draft a guideline for all MPs to spend their grants effectively in future.

"The idea was generated during an interaction of students with Sitaram Yechury here. He suggested that we can do something to help manage the MPLADs," IIM-A student Krishna Chapuri said.

Chapuri, along with his batchmate Vijayendra Haryal and first-year postgraduate programme student Shrijan Pal Singh, chalked out a plan on how to go about it.

"Later, I went to Delhi and gave a presentation on the our plan of work, to which Yechury agreed," he said.

They later decided to rope in other MPs also and contacted Shourie.

"Shourie has agreed to cooperate in our project," Shrijan said.

"We have also decided to include some MPs from Gujarat and talks are going on with them. Until now, the MPs used to spend the grants in an unscientific manner. They have no data on how many people have benefited from their grants," Shrijan said.

The students will analyse how and where the money can be utilised so that maximum number of people are benefitted, create data banks and identify NGOs to help make this funds reach the needy people.

They also plan to visit constituencies to get an experience of the situation at the ground level.

The project will be carried out under guidance of IIM-A faculty member Anil Gupta.

"We have planned to select three to four students for this project," Shrijan said, adding it will help the students understand public policies and working of the government system in a better manner.

The MPLAD scheme started in 1993.