Shillong, Feb 9: Kickstarting its poll campaign in the state with a theme of making Meghalaya a Five Star state, Congress party on Thursday announced its ‘Five Commitments’ to achieve this goal.
Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee chief Vincent Pala along with AICC General Secretary in-charge Manish Chatrath released the Commitments in a press conference held at party office in Shillong.
“Direct transfer of Rs 3,000 per month to single BPL mothers raising their children alone tops our five commitments as this will empower women giving them financial independence and help them in running their house better. Rs 3000 a month translates to Rs 36,000 a year is a substantial amount and this will help women pay the school fees of their children and tame inflation,” said Vincent Pala addressing the press conference.
“Our second commitment is to provide one job to deserving candidate from every household of Meghalaya. Lack of decent employment opportunities in the state has fuelled the desperation amongst our youngsters and they are compelled to migrate to far-flung cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata etc to meet their basic needs,” added Pala asserting that Congress party is committed to bringing Meghalayan youth out of the situation of despondence and dejection.
Speaking at the occasion, AICC General Secretary in-charge of Meghalaya, Manish Chatrath took pot-shots at the NPP-BJP led government and said that the incumbent regime did nothing constructive to channelize the youth energy in the right direction.
“Law and Order in Meghalaya was the first victim of the poor governance by NPP-BJP coalition. Large-scale unemployment amongst the youth made them gullible and smuggling of all kinds of drugs from across the border worsened the situation,” said Chatrath insisting that Congress party is committed to make Meghalaya a drug-free state.
He Asserted that Congress is also committed to making Meghalaya a corruption-free state. “We are coming up with a transparency law which would be a Mother of RTI. The Congress government brought the Right to Information Act to empower common citizen but Modi government at centre and NPP regime in the state diluted the law step by step and ultimately left it inconsequential,” said Chatrath.
He further said the new law would be by the Congress party would mandate successive governments to upload all the files related to development and infrastructure on government portals six months after of their closure to bring in more transparency in governance which would reduce corruption to a great extent.
The party also released its ‘Five Commitment’ to provide uninterrupted and regular electricity supply to all commercial and domestic users as prolonged power cuts have affected the production and revenue of the entrepreneurs in the state while it also had a negative impact on learnings and growth of kids who fail to study their courses in dark due to power cuts. Congress party’s commitment of uninterrupted power supply will not only boost state industrial growth but also ensure children’s all-round development.