By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Nov 26: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) declared on Sunday that it opposes the celebration of festivals that do not benefit the general public in any noticeable way.
The party stated that it opposes the “ploy” by successive governments to use festivals as a means to divert public attention away from their failings in the areas of roads, electricity, health, and education.
VPP spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh said, “We have observed that successive governments in Meghalaya, whether led by the Congress or the MDA parties, have been organising festivals to deflect the attention of the public to their failures whether on road, power, education, health, etc.”
He recalled that the VPP’s opposition to holding festivals that do not directly benefit the public is expressed in the party’s manifesto that was released before the Assembly elections earlier this year.
“Those in the government waste public money to score political points by cleverly taking advantage of people’s love of music,” he said.
“The VPP is committed to providing alternative governance models where the state should support the people in those sectors that empower people in the long run and waste people’s energy on festivals,” Myrboh stated.
The state government has made adequate provisions amounting to Rs 7.5 crore to meet the expenditure for the festivals under Expenditure Head 104, Promotion & Publicity, which received approval from the House during the budget session in March.