SHILLONG, Jan 22: The ruling NPP on Sunday said the election promises of the TMC such as the WE (Women’s Empowerment) Card and the MYE (Meghalaya Youth Empowerment) Card are debt traps, unrealistic and hollow.
The NPP said the TMC’s promise of Rs 1,000 per month for a woman from every household would burden the state with Rs 840 crore annually. Meghalaya has more than 7 lakh households.
The WE scheme is as unrealistic as the MYE scheme, which would entail Rs 1,000 per month or Rs 12,000 annually for every unemployed youth in the state aged 21-40 years, the party said.
“Meghalaya has 11 lakh youths in this range. Even if we assume 50% of them are unemployed, the estimated expenditure would work out to Rs 700 crore annually,” NPP spokesperson and Williamnagar MLA Marcuise N Marak said.
He said the total expenditure of more than Rs 1,500 crore on these two TMC schemes is about 50% of the state government’s expenditure on development. The government’s expenditure on all heads is about Rs 15,000 crore.
Stating that the TMC must have done its homework to make the promises, Marak said the TMC claims to have successfully implemented the women empowerment scheme in West Bengal with a budget outlay of Rs 13,000 crore for 1.6 crore beneficiaries. This, he pointed out, made a mockery of Mamata Banerjee’s promise of financial inclusion for 5 crore women in her state.
Reminding that many TMC legislators in West Bengal were recently seen being scolded by Banerjee during her administrative review meetings for seeking the allocation of developmental works in their constituencies, Marak said these MLAs are complaining in private that the voters are unhappy with their inability to fund even small projects.
“West Bengal’s budget statement of 2022-23 states that the fiscal deficit increased exponentially to Rs 53,431 core in 2021-22 from Rs 19,500 crore in 2010-11. The rise during TMC’s reign is close to 300% and the deficit appears to be met by loans,” he said.
“For Meghalaya, loans from external agencies are mostly (90%) granted from the central government and are strictly monitored by the banks. Thus, to avail of a loan, cordial Centre-state relationship and project completion are a must,” Marak said.
Attacking the leader of the opposition, he said, “The Mukul Sangma government’s performance from 2010-18 is well testified in the M-LAMP project.”
“The funding agency, IFAD was about to close the project in 2018 due to non-performance and non-utilisation of funds. The project is now doing so well. The NPP-led MDA government has been able to attract more than Rs 10,000 crore in funding from external agencies which is mostly a grant while the figure was merely Rs 2,300 crore in 2018,” he added.
