SHILLONG, Oct 27: The State BJP on Sunday reiterated its claim that the ruling NPP was resorting to blackmail by threatening the residents of Gambegre that their schemes and MGNREGA wages would be scrapped if they voted against the ruling party’s candidate.
“The chairmen in the blocks who are from the ruling party are said to have stopped the MGNREGA wage payments in many Gram Panchayats and secretaries of the Panchayats are not complaining against this as they are also appointed politically without any election,” BJP vice president and Gambegre candidate, Bernard N Marak stated on Sunday.
“The villagers are also being threatened that schemes like PMAY and JJM would be cancelled if they vote against the ruling party. They even lied that the Centre did not release the MGNREGA wages which is an attempt to malign the BJP government in the Centre,” he continued.
Stating that the people of Gambegre have been robbed off their basic needs for long, he said the BJP is focussing on corruption, development and education as it core agenda for the bypoll.
“We are always against corruption and we will work on that agenda as the villagers has been victimised and not given their dues in spite of the central government giving specific guidelines and directions to the state government that all the schemes should reach the beneficiaries,” he added.
He alleged that the CGI sheets were meant for BPL families but in Gambegre it is given to the supporters of only one particular party (NPP).
Talking about lack of development in the constituency, he said, “Gambegre have been left out of development by former MLAs in terms of connectivity, drinking water, health and education.”
He said the recent deluge revealed that most of the houses were not PMAY and many of the households did not even have BPL cards which only prove that the schemes never reached the grassroots.
Stating that education is totally compromised while the government always claims it to be their priority, he said, “Schools are in shabby condition, children have to travel 2-3 km as the primary schools in their village do not have blackboard, benches, toilet, and water.”
Asked if the misuse of state machinery continues as alleged earlier, he said he has not received any fresh report.
