BJP trains guns on MDA

SHILLONG, Nov 28: The State BJP vice president, Bernard Marak, on Sunday targeted the Meghalaya government, of which it is a part, accusing the MDA of using central grants for the party and the party workers instead of the public.
“They are always going to the Centre with sweet words in terms of development but in practicality they are not utilising the money for the people but using it for the party and party workers, even the CGI sheets housing assistance schemes, it is all being given to party men and not to the poor,” alleged State BJP vice president and Tura MDC, Bernard Marak.
Marak said this while reacting to Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong asking BJP Meghalaya in-charge, Dr M Chuba Ao, to specifically pin-point which central scheme is lagging behind in terms of implementation.
“Let him come to Garo Hills, we will give him all the details, we have records of people not getting free rice and now also just because we are making noise they are issuing the rice,” said Marak.
The State BJP vice president further said, “The proof will be sent to the Centre, let our concerned minister reply to the Centre because if we give the proof to them they will try to rectify it before giving it to the Centre and so we will give it to them (central government) first and let them handle it with the government”.
Stating that Meghalaya under the incumbent leadership cannot produce utilisation certificate for most of the funds sanctioned by the central government, he added that this is why the central government is resisting granting more funds to the state.
“There is no clarity there is no transparency and schemes are not being implemented properly up to the grassroots level,” he added.
Reminding that he has been continuously raising the issue regarding the central schemes, the reports of which are going to the Centre, Marak said that because of that the reverification of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is being done as there are several people who have been “deprived and left out of it”.
“There is a new survey going on for JJM and the same with PMGKY which has been extended up to March as under the PMGKY so many having ration cards were not getting the scheme and that is fact in rural areas,” he added.
He said that they are collating the reports from the ground and submitting to the Centre.