Meghalaya: NCP releases manifesto; assures to make state an ‘educational hub’ again

By Our Reporter, TNT News | Shillong, Feb 22, 2018: 

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday released its manifesto in Shillong with focus being laid on health care, connectivity, education and youth affairs besides others.

Pointing out that the state is lagging behind in so many areas like health care and education, NCP working president Vijay Raj told media persons on Thursday that there is a shortage of doctors and medical specialists in the state thereby affecting the health care delivery system in many PHCs and CHCs in the state.

In line with this, the party assures to cater to the needs of the people and provide better health care services besides encouraging doctors and nurses to serves in the state particularly in the rural areas.

Furthermore, it also assured to open generic medicine outlets in every district. Adequate equipment for diagnosing the patients at PHC and CHC adding that specialist doctors will be engaged and posted in all PHC and CHC.

In as far as education is concerned, the party intends to introduce a social security scheme for the teaching community to provide better assistance to adhoc schools and colleges, to ensure that the education policy emphasis more on skill development to ensure that unemployed youth become employable, to endeavour for inclusive education benefiting all sections of the society.

Stating that the number of civil servants from the state is very minimal, the party working president said that it is very unfortunate that the number of successful candidates who compete for the UPSC examinations is very less.

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Maintaining that the number needs to increase, the party said that if voted to power, all NCP MLA's will at least search, encourage and fund from its Discretionary Grant at least two students per year to become an IAS officer. "There is a need to bring in an Education Policy which is the need of the hour, to bring back the lost glory of Meghalaya being the educational hub of Northeast India," reads the manifesto.

Emphasizing on mining, the party assured to bring in a mining policy with the consent of the people and their participation adding that a method of scientific mining can be implemented to save loss of lives, monetarily as well as environmentally.

When asked about uranium mining in the state, Raj said uranium is a sensitive issue and it hasn't been scientifically proven that it is safe for humans as well as the environment. "We are not going to touch on this subject at this juncture,"  he said.

In as far as sports and youth affairs is concerned, the NCP in its manifesto highlighted that the party will allot space for offices to those NGOs who are in the field of sports and youth affairs, to set up a sports academy to promote sports and sports persons, to institute scholarships for exemplary sportsperson of the state.

The party also touched on employment aspect stating that the party will create self-employment by encouraging the youth to undergo training in various fields adding that job opportunities will also be provided by creating schemes where they will be absorbed in their respective fields.

On the law and order front, the party leader said "We are not satisfied with the law and order situation in the state particularly in Garo Hills." Raj also added that law and order is a state's subject and if voted to power, they come up with various strategies to eliminate militancy which has been plaguing the society for far too long.

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