Palakkad Collector G Priyanka has directed panchayats to remove the backlit images of MLAs found on the high-mast lamp poles in Kongad and Alathur Assembly constituencies that were installed using the Asset Development Funds of MLAs. The panchayats have also been asked to disconnect the power connection to these MLA images.

The order, issued on April 25, is based on a complaint filed by Palakkad-based social activist Boban Mattumantha on March 25. In addition to removing these backlit boards from high-mast poles, Boban wanted the collector to recover from the MLAs all the electricity charges the local bodies have had to bear to keep these MLA snapshots lighted in the nights. 

The order is silent about the recovery aspect. Mattumantha had estimated that a panchayat had to shell out nearly ₹120 a year to keep one such pole-mounted MLA image burning.

Curiously, the order was restricted to Kongad and Alathur. It does not mention the removal of the lighted images of excise minister M B Rajesh found on the high-mast lamp poles of Thrithala constituency. Sources in the Collector's office said that Mattumantha's complaint had provided evidence of only two MLAs using such a public relations strategy: Kongad MLA Santhakumari and Alathur MLA K D Prasenan, both CPM.

When he filed the complaint, Boban had come across the pole-mounted images of only Santhakumari and Prasenan. It was later that he came across an illuminated image of M B Rajesh, the minister of local bodies himself, on a high-mast pole at Nangalassery panchayat in Rajesh's constituency Thrithala. So on March 28, he fired a missive to the excise minister himself, with the photograph of his smiling backlit image high up on a lamp pole. "I am yet to receive a reply," Boban told Onmanorama. 

The district administration, however, conducted an enquiry after it received Boban's complaint. The executive engineer of the Palakkad District Panchayat replied that the MLA images on high-mast lamp poles and the electricity connection given to them were not part of the estimate under the Asset Development Funds of MLAs. It was this reply that prompted the collector to order the removal of the images. 

The executive engineer's reply has apparently both amused and irritated Boban. "This means that a work component that was not in the original estimate was executed on the basis of the personal interest of contractors and then the panchayat was made to pay for the whims of these contractors. It is strange that the supervising officers did not notice this all this while," Boban said.  

Boban said that it was the responsibility of people's representatives to bring development to their constituencies. "And for this they spend the money paid as taxes by the public. But by giving their names in bold these people's representatives try to give the impression that these projects were brought to fruition with their own money," Boban said.

The guidelines for the MP Local Area Development Scheme (the project on which the MLA Asset Development Fund is modelled) insists on the name of the MP. Here is what it says: "For greater public awareness, a plaque (stone/metal) carrying the inscription 'Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme Work' indicating the cost involved, the commencement, completion and inauguration date, and the name of the MP recommending the project, should be permanently erected at the project site and placed at eye level for better visibility."

But nowhere is it said that there should be electricity-powered images of the MP or MLA on assets created using MP or MLA funds.