Uttarakhand ministers lag behind CM Dhami in MLA fund expenditure
Uttarakhand ministers lag behind CM Dhami in MLA fund expenditure
Kashipur, Sept 10
With only a few months remaining in the tenure of the current MLAs of Uttarakhand, yet only 66 percent of the allocated MLA funds have been utilized. Four ministers in Uttarakhand lag behind Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in terms of MLA fund expenditure.
Nadeem Uddin (Advocate), an RTI activist from Kashipur, had sought details regarding MLA fund expenditure from the office of the Rural Development Commissioner, Uttarakhand. In response, Deputy Commissioner (Administration) Hemanti Gunjiyal provided a photocopy of the current MLA fund details (vide letter no. 319762).
According to the information provided to Nadeem, a total of ₹1,66,400 lakh in MLA funds was made available between the 2022-23 fiscal year and June 2026. However, only 66 percent—amounting to ₹1,09,129.19 lakh—was spent, leaving 34 percent of the funds yet to be utilized.
When examining the MLA fund expenditure of Uttarakhand government ministers, four ministers rank ahead of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Topping the list is Roorkee MLA Pradeep Batra with 77 percent expenditure; in second place is Sitarganj MLA Saurabh Bahuguna with 72 percent; third is Chaubattakhal MLA Satpal Maharaj with 68 percent; fourth is Rajpur Road MLA Khajan Das with 66.11 percent; and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami ranks fifth with 65.61 percent expenditure.
Additionally, Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi ranks sixth (65.45% expenditure), followed by Bhimtal MLA Ram Singh Kaida in seventh place (62%), Someshwar MLA Rekha Arya in eighth (60%), Narendra Nagar MLA Subodh Uniyal in ninth (57%), and Srinagar MLA Dhan Singh Rawat in tenth (37%).
Among the MLAs in Uttarakhand with the highest expenditure of their MLA funds, Pradeep Batra and Furkan Ahmad share the top spot (77% expenditure); Ravi Bahadur, Sarwat Karim, and Madan Singh Bisht are in second place (76%); Chandan Ram Das and Mahesh Singh Jeena are in third (75%); Umesh Sharma, Gopal Singh, and Sumit Hridayesh are in fourth (74%); and Braj Bhushan Gairola, Aadesh Singh (BHEL), Anupama Rawat, Rajkumar Pori, Mohan Singh, Dr. Mohan Singh (Lalkuan), and Fakir Ramanta are in fifth (73%). Banshidhar Bhagat, Diwan Singh Bisht, Virendra Kumar, and Saurabh Bahuguna are in sixth place (72%); Mamta Rakesh and Trilok Singh Cheema are in seventh (71%); Madan Kaushik and Arvind Pandey are in eighth (70%); Vinod Kandari, Umesh Sharma, Shahzad, Ritu Khanduri, Sarita Arya, Tilakraj Behar, and Bhuvan Chandra are in ninth (69%); and Satpal Maharaj is in tenth place (68%).
Among the MLAs in Uttarakhand with the lowest utilization of their constituency development funds, Kishore Upadhyay ranks first with 30% expenditure; Dr. Dhan Singh Rawat is second (37%); Renu Bisht is third (44%); Pritam Singh is fourth (51%); Suresh Gariya is fifth (52%); Khushal Singh is sixth (53%); Prem Chandra Agarwal is seventh (54%); Yashpal Arya and Shakti Lal Shah are eighth (55%); Pramod Nautiyal is ninth (56%); and Smt. Shaila Rani and Bharat Singh and Subodh Uniyal are tenth (57%).
