Shillong: The Congress on Thursday announced five promises for poll-bound Meghalaya — women’s empowerment, unemployment, corruption, drugs and power cut-free state — vowing to turn Meghalaya into a ‘five-star state.
The 60-member Meghalaya Assembly will go to the polls on February 27, while the counting of votes will be taken up on March 2.
Announcing the five poll promises here, Meghalaya Congress President Vincent H. Pala, along with AICC General Secretary in-charge of Meghalaya Manish Chatrath, said that direct transfer of Rs 3,000 per month to single BPL mothers raising their children alone is the party’s top commitment as this would give women financial independence and help them run their houses better.
“Our second commitment is to provide one job to all deserving candidates from every household in Meghalaya. Lack of decent employment opportunities in the state has fuelled the desperation among our youngsters and they are compelled to migrate to far-flung cities of Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata to meet their basic needs,” Pala told the media.
The Congress is committed to bring the youth of Meghalaya out of the situation of despondency and dejection, he said.
Chatrath took pot-shots at the “outgoing” National People’s Party-BJP government and said that the incumbent regime did nothing constructive to channelise the youth’s energy in the right direction.
He also alleged that law and order in Meghalaya was the first victim of poor governance of the NPP-BJP coalition.
“Large-scale unemployment among the youth made them gullible, while smuggling of all kinds of drugs from across the border worsened the situation,” said Chatrath, promising that Congress is committed to make Meghalaya a drugs-free state.
Chatrath asserted that Congress is also committed to making Meghalaya a corruption-free state.
“We will come up with a transparency law which would be the ‘mother of RTI’. The Congress government brought the Right to Information Act to empower common citizens but the Modi government at the Centre and the NPP regime in the state diluted the law step by step and ultimately left it inconsequential,” the Congress leader said.
The Congress, which ruled the state for many years earlier, is currently left with no MLAs in the outgoing Assembly.
The party also promised uninterrupted electricity supply to all commercial and domestic users.
Long power cuts have affected the production and revenue of the entrepreneurs in the state while it also had a negative impact on the learning and growth of kids who fail to study their courses in the dark, the AICC General Secretary said.
Congress’ commitment of uninterrupted power supply would not only boost the state’s industrial growth, but also ensure children’s all-round development, the party leaders asserted.
The Congress has fielded candidates for all the 60 seats in Meghalaya.
–IANS