Meghalaya Congress promises jobs, free healthcare, girls’ education

SHILLONG: In order to woo the working class and BPL families, the Meghalaya Congress on Saturday promised one job to each household, free healthcare for all and free education for all girls up to class 12 if voted to power. In its manifesto for the February 27 election which was released by senior leader Jairam Ramesh here during the day, the Congress also promised free roofing materials, free power of up to 200 units and free LPG cylinders quarterly to BPL families across the state.

Two days ago, the party also announced five commitments to make Meghalaya a ‘5-star’ state. Besides empowering every BPL single mother with a monthly allowance of Rs 3,000, the party want to make the state free from four menaces – unemployment, corruption, power cut and drug abuse. Ramesh said that 41 per cent of women in Meghalaya are single mothers. The Congress suffered a major loss in recent years as none of its 17 MLAs who were elected in 2018 is with the party.

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While 12 of them joined the Trinamool Congress in 2021, the remaining five are contesting on NPP and UDP tickets. Unveiling the manifesto, Ramesh said the party intends to announce a minimum support price (MSP) for ginger, turmeric, black pepper and other agricultural produce of the state for farmers in the state. Stating that the manifesto has 14 big promises to be fulfilled over the next five years, Ramesh said, “Every year, we will present a report card to the people of Meghalaya on the status of implementation of each of the promises that we have made.” The five commitments were included in the 14 promises in the manifesto, he said.

About making Meghalaya free from corruption, Ramesh said, "We will enact a law, we will have an ombudsman, we will have strong anti-corruption machinery.” The new law would mandate the government to upload all files related to development and infrastructure on portals six months after their closure, which will reduce corruption to a great extent and bring in more transparency in governance.

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The 14-point manifesto said that Congress is committed to providing free health care for all citizens under the soon-to-be-unveiled Free Health Care Scheme and providing free education to every girl child in Meghalaya from kindergarten to class 12 so that they can fulfil their dreams. The Congress said it will provide every BPL household with quality roofing materials and a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore will be formed for building infrastructure for religious gatherings. “We will also establish a dedicated state university with a special focus on job-oriented and market-ready courses such as IOT (Internet of Things), BlockChain Technology, IT and ITES,” it said.

The manifesto said that the party is also committed to establishing a Special Urban Police Force which will be modern, people-friendly and equipped to handle city-based crimes using the latest technology and equipment. Promising free power and free LPG cylinders for BPL families, it said, “We will provide 200 units of free power to each household with consumption expenditure below the poverty line (BPL). We will provide a free LPG cylinder quarterly to each household.”

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The Congress assured people to create one job for every household in Meghalaya through the promotion of mass entrepreneurship. “We are committed to digitise all government records, reports and data in order to ensure citizen-friendly and transparent governance of the state,” it said.