NDM makes finances public, raps narrative of money power

SHILLONG, Nov 20: Youth organisation New Dawn Meghalaya (NDM) has decided to release its statement of receipt and expenditure, while calling the political parties out and slamming the domination of money power narrative which is allegedly pushed by large parties like the NPP, Congress, BJP, etc.
In a statement, NDM president Avner Pariat said, “We feel this must be the future of electoral politics. Publicly-funded elections will ensure that our political parties work for the benefit of the public and not the vested interests. Let us get vested interests out of our political system.”
It may be noted that Pariat is an MLA candidate from East Shillong said.
He stated that actual bank statements can be viewed upon request via the NDM’s website or email, while adding that the names of our donors will be confidential.
Informing that the total amount pledged is Rs 2 lakh, Pariat said that the fund received is Rs 142,102.
Revealing that the total expenditure is Rs 1,45,200, the NDM president said various expenditures include Rs 1,03,200 spent on printing, Rs 12,000 on information dissemination, Rs 28,000 on volunteer honorarium, and Rs 2,000 on one-time payment for training assistance.
“To encourage transparency with the public, most of our funding comes from small donors and not big businessmen. We are thankful for this because it means we are not controlled by vested interests,” he said in the statement.
“…we aim to show that elections can and should always be fought with fairness and transparency. We hope everyone would be encouraged to join us,” the NDM president said.