Meghalaya CM slams BJP for being insensitive to farmers’ welfare

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 13, 2022

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday slammed the BJP for its insensitivity towards the welfare and interest of the farmers in the state. 

He was strongly reacting to the allegation made by the BJP state president Ernest Mawrie that the National People’s Party (NPP) has taken a loan of over Rs 1500 crore for distribution to the people under the FOCUS scheme. 

Mawrie had also warned people that the scheme given to them is not a grant but a loan, which they will have to repay in the future.

Terming the allegation as totally wrong, Sangma said that whoever has made the comment has not understood how government functions and how finances are managed. 

“The entire fund allocated for the FOCUS and FOCUS+ is coming to about Rs 400 crore plus so it is not touching Rs 1500 crore at all,” he said.

He said the impact of Rs 400 crore or Rs 450 crore will be only when the government is able to cover four and a half lakh families.

According to him, the process is moving forward and each of the family are submitting the necessary documents.

Stating that the government has got different sources of funds, Sangma said, “We have different sources of funds that are flowing in whether it is our own taxes or whether it is the budget provisions for the loans that we take  or whether it is the central taxes  or whether it is externally aided projects so there are different sources that comes in. Therefore, one need to understand that when this entire thing comes in from different sources then government accordingly budget and allocate funds. Therefore, making an allegation like this saying that we just took Rs 1500 crore and paid for this is completely wrong. As I said one has not understand how government budget happens and government spending happens.” 

When asked, the chief minister said it is sad to see that helping the poor people and helping the farmers is being looked at as an election agenda. 

“It is very sad and whoever made this comment has not understood that these are farmers, these are people who need to be helped and government is helping them which should have been done a long time back. The perception itself of whoever has given this has clearly not understood the sentiments of the poor people and the sentiments of the farmers,” he said while adding “If you go and speak to the farmers today and hear the testimonies that they are giving they will be telling you how this money is benefiting them to be able to raise their livelihoods to be able to take up small businesses and making their groups and it is making a huge impact at the grassroot level.”

He further informed that the entire programme had infact started in 2021 and it is completely wrong for anybody to say that this ia an election agenda.

“Because if that is the case we would have started distributing now but for the information of everybody I had launched this about a year and a half year back when I was in Tura so process has started long time back and so connecting it to elections is completely wrong and as I said it is being insensitive to the needs of the farmers,” Sangma stated.