VPP lines up issues to raise in House

SHILLONG, Feb 15: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) will raise several issues ranging from unemployment and Meghalaya’s financial health to the safety and security of people along the borders of the state during the Budget session of the Assembly.
The problems faced by the farmers, the livelihoods of small miners, and the future of students and education are some of the other issues the party intends to take up, VPP spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh said.
“We will also raise the issue of the financial condition of the state, especially as the government of Meghalaya has increasingly been borrowing,” he said.
He asserted that the VPP camp has prepared extensively to take on the government but decried the short duration of the Assembly session.
Opposition and Congress Legislature Party leader Ronnie V Lyngdoh could not be contacted for his comments. Other TMC MLAs were also unreachable.
Opp fails to find common ground
Lyngdoh’s efforts to mobilise the MLAs of the three opposition parties to voice their concerns on common issues during the Budget session from Friday appears to have failed with the TMC choosing to be elusive.
On Sunday, he said the opposition parties will have another meeting to discuss the issues to be raised jointly during the Budget session as only the VPP legislators attended the first meeting.
The TMC legislators missed the second meeting too.
The VPP said the discussions revolved around the need to avoid repetitive questions because of the paucity of time.
“The budget session is extremely limited because this government does not want to provide the opportunity to the opposition to put across the issues of the people. The opposition has to utilise the time,” Myrboh said on Thursday.
Efforts to reach Lyngdoh and the TMC leaders were unsuccessful as their mobile phones remained out of reach.
The three-party opposition camp was found to be in disarray during the last autumn session of the 60-member House, which was why Lyngdoh undertook the initiative to call for unity.