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Journalism of Courage
Promising a slew of measures, including free healthcare, education for girls and electricity for below poverty line (BPL) families, the Congress Saturday released its manifesto ahead of the February 27 Meghalaya Assembly election.
The party’s “Citizen Manifesto” was launched in Shillong in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader Jairam Ramesh, who described the last five years as a “government of the NDA, government by the NDA and a government for the NDA”.
In the 2018 Assembly election, the Congress had emerged as the single-largest party but it was the homegrown National People’s Party (NPP) that formed the government by stitching up an alliance with the BJP and regional player United Democratic Party. The NPP is an ally of the NDA government at the Centre.
The Congress alleged that the state had witnessed the “most-opaque governance of all time” with massive corruption charges in the past few years. The leaders said that the manifesto had “everything to take us forward as a fastest growing state but nothing for politics of hatred and dividing people in the name of religion and ideology.”
Among the poll promises, the party has promised a free healthcare scheme, free roof for every BPL household, Rs 500 crore corpus fund for building infrastructure for religious gatherings, a dedicated State University with special focus on job-oriented and market-ready courses and a modern, people-friendly Special Urban Police Force.
The party’s manifesto also focused on a few issues that had come up in the past five years such as frequent power cuts in the state and said, “We propose to augment the power supply in our state by an additional 500 MW through the adoption of clean and green technologies.” The manifesto also promised 200 units of free electricity to each household with consumption expenditure for BPL families.
It also addressed issues related to the delay in teachers’ salaries among other issues and said Congress will “restore the dignity of all teachers” in Meghalaya by assuring that there is no more delay in salaries. Last year, Meghalaya SSA Schools’ Association (MSSASA) teachers had hit the streets, protesting a delay in salaries.
The party also promised to revive the mining sector in the state and formulate a mining policy based on norms, laid down by the Supreme Court. The National Green Tribunal in 2014 banned all coal mining in the state calling it “illegal”. Since then, it has become a highly contentious matter in the state where few economic opportunities exist and royalty on coal is a major source of revenue.
Since 2021, the Congress — the main Opposition party — has faced a series of setbacks. It is now left with no sitting legislator, following a dramatic overnight exodus of the MLAs to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) in November 2021. For this election, the party has had to field mostly fresh faces.
