KOCHI: Nearly 20 months after the 18th Lok Sabha came into existence in June 2024, the utilisation of Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds by Kerala MPs remains far below the national average.
Under MPLADS, every MP is entitled to recommend constituency-level development works worth Rs 5 crore annually. However, data available on the Empowered Indian MPLADS dashboard as on January 21, 2026, show that Kerala MPs, as a group, have performed poorly in converting allocations into completed projects.
At the national level, Lok Sabha MPs have utilised an average of 28.1% of their MPLADS entitlement, while Rajya Sabha MPs have achieved a significantly higher utilisation of 44.2%. In contrast, Kerala’s Lok Sabha MPs on average have utilised only 11.4% of their available funds. Rajya Sabha MPs from the state have performed only marginally better, with utilisation at 14.74%.
Within Kerala, the performance varies widely. CPM Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas topped the list in the state, with utilisation touching 26.32% of his entitlement. Among Lok Sabha MPs, Dean Kuriakose leads with 24.33% utilisation of the allocated funds, followed by N K Premachandran (21.42%) and V K Sreekandan (18.72%).
Several MPs fall in the middle range with utilisation between 10 and 15 %, including Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden (15.23%), Rajmohan Unnithan (14.32 %), Adoor Prakash (14.25%), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (13.37%) and Shashi Tharoor (13.28 %).
At the lower end of the spectrum are MPs such as Union Minister and Thrissur MP Suresh Gopi, whose utilisation stands at 5.97%, while K Francis George and Shafi Parambil have recorded only 4% utilisation each. Abdussamad Samadani has utilised just 0.33%, while M K Raghavan and E T Mohammed Basheer are shown as having zero utilisation so far.
Explaining the low figures, Suresh Gopi told TNIE that the relatively poor utilisation by Kerala MPs is primarily due to “administrative lapses rather than lack of intent”.
“Under the revised MPLADS guidelines, every proposal must be approved by the district implementing authority within 45 days. However, in practice, there are frequent delays in receiving estimates and mandatory documents from implementing offices, causing many projects to miss this deadline,” Suresh Gopi said.
It will take time for actual spending to reflect, says Hibi
“Delays in the tendering process and in the submission and clearance of bills further prolong project completion,” he said. He also pointed to cases where locally important projects were objected to on feasibility grounds. According to him, out of the Rs 10 crore MPLADS allocation, projects worth Rs 7.84 crore have already been proposed and are either approved or awaiting approval. The utilisation percentage remains low because a project is counted as “utilised” only after completion and final bill submission, he said.
CPM MP from Alathur, K Radhakrishnan, pointed out that identifying contractors — especially for smaller works — remains a major hurdle in the implementation of MPLADS projects. He cited instances where funds sanctioned for anganwadis in forest areas have been held up due to the need for clearances from multiple departments.
“What is reflected in the MPLADS dashboard is largely technical and does not truly capture the efficiency of utilisation. Almost all MPs sanction 100% of their funds,” Radhakrishnan said, adding that delays primarily arise from procedural, technical, and administrative bottlenecks.
Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden said he has already submitted proposals covering the entire corpus available to him. “The key difference between MP and MLA funds is that once an administrative sanction is granted for MLA funds, it is immediately certified as expenditure. In the case of MP funds, however, the process involves tendering, sanctioning of work, commencement of execution, and only after the utilisation certificate is issued is the amount reflected as spent,” he said.
Elaborating on the complexity involved, Hibi cited the example of procuring boats for coastal communities, noting that such projects require multiple approvals and design clearances, unlike simpler procurements made through the Government e-Marketplace portal.
He pointed out that distributing assets such as school buses is relatively easy and gets reflected quickly on the dashboard, whereas infrastructure projects like classroom construction take longer. “Only after the utilisation certificate is issued does the expenditure get reflected in the dashboard,” he said. “…It will take time for the actual spending to show up in the dashboard,” Hibi added, assuring that not a single rupee would remain unutilised.