Funds would not be an impediment if members of the 15th Vidhan Sabha want to bring some development to their constituencies. The MLAs of the 14th Vidhan Sabha have left much of the money unused in the state coffers.

While MLAs had up to Rs 1 crore each in their development funds, the records of the Finance department show that not a single MLA in the previous House had used the complete fund. In 2005-6, about 50 per cent of the total sanctioned amount was used, while 72.5 per cent was used in 2006-7 fiscal.

An amount of Rs 197 crore has been left unutilised in the last fiscal. Since this fund doesn’t lapse, an additional Rs 40 lakh would be available to each legislator of the 15th Vidhan Sabha this financial year.

In fact, the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government had hiked the fund to Rs 1.25 crore a few months back. So members of the House will have an average of Rs 1.65 crore each at hand to develop their constituencies in 2007-8 fiscal.

Mayawati has already asked her MLAs to visit their constituencies to thank the electorate. Indrajeet Saroj, who took oath as Cabinet minister today, said, “It also means that she wants us to intensify the stalled developmental works.”

Saroj’s name too occurs on the list of MLAs who didn’t use the fund. Defending himself, Saroj said, “ The BSP members in the previous Assembly failed to use the funds because of the non-cooperation of the officers in the Mulayam Government. Since we are richer now, we will show the path of development.”