UDP fired up NPP MLAs for misulitization of FOCUS scheme for political mileage

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 21, 2022

The UDP is the second largest coalition partner of Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) Government has fired up against the NPP ministers and legislators for misusing the FOCUS and FOCUS+ scheme for their political mileage ahead of the MLA Election scheduled in a month time.

In a representation to the Chief Election Commissioner New Delhi, UDP vice president Allantry F Dkhar informed that there are some MLAs and ministers associated with NPP who are misusing the FOCUS and FOCUS+ Scheme which is in direct contradiction towards the officially declared beneficiaries who are farmers of Meghalaya.

According to Dkhar who is the political advisor to the Chief Minister, “The following is the stated official explanation available on social media etc. What is Chief Minister FOCUS and FOCUS+ program Meghalaya?”

Dkhar said that the state of Meghalaya has launched a welfare program of 200 crore rupees. The program was developed by the  State Government in response to the financial troubles that farmers have experienced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma has visited numerous district and blocks across the state during the last 3 months.

Farmers are grouped into producer groups for this program and each member of the group receives 5000 rupees.

The funds, according to Sangma, can be used as seed money to help farmers scale up their operations.

“What figures as an anomaly is the fact that certain MLAs as well as ministers are blatantly distributing such schemes in areas where farming is not possible. This goes to show that for political benefit, misuse is the name of the game. I strongly apprise your good office to kindly take note of this and execute relevant exercises, so as to not deprive the targeted farmers,” Dkhar said in the letter.