SHILLONG, Feb 15: The Voice of the People Party (VPP), in its vision document for the February 27 Assembly polls, said that the party wants to transform Meghalaya into a model state for the rest of India.
Releasing the vision document of the new party here on Wednesday, party president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit said VPP wants the state to be restored with the values inherited from the forefathers and revived morally, intellectually, and materially.
“The party is strongly embedded in the principle of clean politics for achieving these noble objectives,” he said.
Basaiawmoit said the party is committed to bringing transformation in the social, economic, political, and cultural life of the people.
“Meghalaya shall be the state that is territorially secured and economically developed where poverty is eliminated. The state shall have strong and decisive leadership. We will ensure that peace and public security prevail that will ensure all-round development of the state,” he said.
He said the VPP would like to see politics in the state be based on strong pillars of substantive democracy with essential features of rule of law, transparency, accountability, responsibility, and equity.
He further said the party will emphasise that the resources of the state are distributed equitably based on social justice and sustainably used, adding that the traditional land ownership system shall be maintained and strengthened.
“We will ensure that the environment and the ecosystem shall be restored and preserved. Meghalaya shall be an investment-friendly state. The youth of the state shall be empowered morally and intellectually capable of competing with the rest of the world,” Basaiawmoit said.
He further said the party would like Meghalaya to be a state where gender equity prevails.
The vision stated that principled and issue-based politics have been replaced by politics of corrupt practices characterised by horse trading, lack of accountability, irresponsibility, and unethical practices in Meghalaya.
“There has been a paradigm shift of politics from being the concern for the common good to the politics of greed, self, and family aggrandizement. This is particularly true after the entry of those who view politics as the means to further their business interests,” it stated.
It further observed that the entry of business-centric politicians coupled with dynastic politics has had a pernicious impact on health, education, environment, agriculture, other economic activities, power, borders, local governance, etc.
The vision document also said this has created disillusionment amongst the people who even questioned whether there is anything that the state should be proud of in the last five decades.
