SHILLONG, Feb 23: Senior NPP leader John F Kharshiing on Thursday said that the NPP has managed to lead the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) smoothly for five years despite having six coalition partners.
“It is not easy to lead a coalition government for five years. But the NPP has managed to lead the MDA Government for five years without any problem. The credit should go to the NPP,” Kharshiing said, while campaigning for Ransom Sutnga, NPP candidate from North Shillong, at Mawkhar on Thursday.
According to him, the NPP-led government has managed to deliver its promises.
“The party has released its vision document where it has highlighted things it has done in the past five years. It is for the people to judge the work of the NPP-led Government,” the senior NPP leader said.
He said that the MDA has managed to increase the number of women SHGs from 60,000 in 2018 to 4.20 lakh in the past five years.
“The PWD would always complain about paucity of funds when I was part of the State Planning Board. During that period only 700-km road was constructed in five years. But the incumbent government has managed to construct of 2234-km road in the past five years,” Kharshiing said.
Recalling that in the last 51 years, only one party in Meghalaya has been able to secure absolute majority, the senior NPP leader said, “We need to give a mandate to one party to have a stable government. In the past, we have seen chief ministers who lasted for only one year or two years. This is not healthy as it affects the growth and development of the state.”
Later, Sutnga stated that he will stress on the need to fill up vacancies in different government departments, besides extending financial assistance to the youths.
He also said there is a need to have a state university besides to restart the functioning of the MCCL at Sohra and the setting up of a green field airport in the state.
Stressing on the need to improve the public transport system, Sutnga suggested that there is a need to encourage the use of buses, taxis, two-wheelers and also construction of parking lots and link roads to address the traffic congestion in Shillong.
“It is important for the state government as well as the district council to give recognition to the Dorbar Shnongs by extending a special package to them,” the NPP candidate said.
Some of the other issues touched upon by Sutnga include solution to long-pending Assam-Meghalaya boundary issue, implementation of ILP, Land Transfer Act, et al.