SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 19 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

In which year was the MPLADS scheme implemented?

(a)2013
(b)1983
(c)2003
(d)1993

Answer

Why

Correct — D. MPLADS, the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, was launched in December 1993, which is option (d).

Under it each MP recommends works of a durable community nature, and the district authority sanctions and executes them. No money passes through the MP.

The entitlement started at ₹5 lakh per MP per year and now stands at ₹5 crore. The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
1983 — 1983 predates the scheme by a decade. MPLADS was announced in Parliament in December 1993, under the P. V. Narasimha Rao government, and nothing of the kind existed in 1983.
(c)
2003 — 2003 is a decade too late. By then MPLADS had been running for years at ₹2 crore per MP per year, the level fixed from 1998-99.
(a)
2013 — 2013 falls after the scheme's last big revision rather than at its start. The annual entitlement had already been raised to ₹5 crore in 2011-12.

Concept

MPLADS is a central sector scheme, funded entirely by the Union government and released as grants to district authorities.

Who may recommend where is the part students skip. A Lok Sabha MP recommends works in the constituency. A Rajya Sabha MP may recommend anywhere in the state that elected them. A nominated MP may recommend anywhere in the country.

The works must be durable community assets — school buildings, roads, drinking-water facilities, public toilets.

SSC asks the year, not the mechanics. The risk is that MPLADS has several memorable years attached to it, and only one of them is the launch.

Keep 1993 as the anchor and file the revisions separately, so a question about the start is not answered with the year the money went up.

Key facts

MPLADS was launched on 23 December 1993 and is administered by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The annual entitlement per MP began at ₹5 lakh and now stands at ₹5 crore.
MPLADS funds are released to the district authority, not to the MP, and are non-lapsable.
A Rajya Sabha MP may recommend works anywhere in the state that elected them, and a nominated MP anywhere in India.

Study next

Launch years of the major central schemes SSC repeatsCentral sector schemes against centrally sponsored schemes, and who funds eachThe role of the district authority in implementing recommended works

Common traps

Answering with 2011-12, the year the entitlement rose to ₹5 crore, instead of the launch year.
Believing the funds are handed to MPs, when they are released to district authorities.

The launch-year frame comes back on scheme after scheme.

It is set on the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.15, keyed to 2008, and on Ujala Yojana at 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.12, keyed to 2015. Both of those, like this one, offer four bare years and nothing else.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.