Shillong: The Congress party has promised to provide free health care, education power, LPG cylinders , one job to every household and a slew of other sops to the voters in its manifesto for the Meghalaya Assembly elections.
The Congress also pledged to do its best to prepare and plan for not just a “corruption-free Meghalaya, but a Meghalaya which is prosperous, where the youths are not driven to unemployment, where there are more opportunities for everyone, where polices are innovative, liberalised and people-friendly, where there is more investments from outside, where there are more state of the art universities, engineering and medical colleges and where there is an earning member in every household.”
Releasing the election manifesto, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the party would provide the social welfare scheme to the beneficiaries if it is voted to power.
“We are committed to providing free health care for all our citizens under our soon to be unveiled Free Health Care Scheme,” Ramesh said.
The party, which is plagued with desertion by all its elected party legislators in 2018, also promised to provide “free education” for the girl child from kindergarten to class XII, free roofing material and LPG cylinders to BPL households.
The Congress also assured the voters that it would provide ” 200 units of free power to each household with consumption expenditure below the poverty line.
“We will provide a free LPG cylinder quarterly to each household with consumption expenditure below the poverty line,” the manifesto said.
The party also promised to provide one job to every household if voted to power.
“We will create one job for every household in Meghalaya through promotion of mass entrepreneurship,” the Congress assured.
Wooing the farming community, the party assured a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for some agricultural products, establishment of a dedicated State University with special focus on job-oriented and market-ready courses.
The party also committed to establishing a Special Urban Police Force which will be modern, people-friendly and equipped to handle city-based crime scenarios using the latest technology and equipment.
“Pension and other benefits” for all accredited journalists and timely disbursal of teachers’ salary in the state,” the manifesto assured.
“We will restore the dignity of all teachers in Meghalaya. No more delay in salaries. Our teachers don’t have to resort to dharna or protests for their legitimate demands. We shall establish an exclusive market for and augment the power supply in our state by an additional 500 MW,” the manifesto said.
Asked from where the party would generate the requisite fund for these schemes and sops, Congress state President Vincent Pala said that by plugging leakages.
“It would cost Rs. 200 crore annually to implement the scheme for the single mothers and so these funds can be easily generated if leakages are plugged and there is no corruption and transparency in implementing projects,” Pala said.
