SHILLONG:
The Trinamool Congress on January 5 assured to create three lakh jobs in the state if voted to power in the coming elections.
Announcing the scheme titled Meghalaya Youth Empowerment Scheme on January 5, vice-president of the party, George B Lyngdoh, informed that apart from guarantee to create three lakh jobs in the next five years it would also provide an allowance of Rs 1000 per month to all unemployed youth aged between 21 and 40 years.
Under this scheme, every unemployed youth, who is between the ages of 21 and 40 years and is a native of Meghalaya, can register for the unemployment allowance scheme. The registered youth will receive a unique ID-enabled MYE Card which will serve as an assured guarantee for the scheme.
Dedicated kiosks will be set up across the state for registration and door-to-door visits will be conducted to reach out to unemployed youths.
TMC Legislature Party Leader and leader of opposition Mukul Sangma said, “Do you believe only 23,200 people are unemployed and registered as per the current government records? It is not. If we go by this figure, we will be misled. MYE Card will always remind us of how far we have come and what more needs to be done. This is the second promise that, as a party, we have made to the people of the state.”
Sangma said that the TMC leaders are not self-centric politicians and they belong to different breeds of politicians.
“Find any other element to really confront me when I say this. But on the contrary you have all those bunch of politicians who belong to different categories, please don’t compare them with us as we belong to different breeds of politicians. We want to be remembered for the good things, we want to leave behind a legacy for the good things we do,” he added.
Urging the youth of the state to take advantage of the TMC’s offer, Sangma said, “Come and join and be part of this great movement to generate this momentum of hope and connect with this agenda and position the state as the state which will be talked about for all the good things, a state which will not have any reasons for the youth to be hopeless, for the youth to be frustrated and to be angry.”
Moreover, Sangma asked the youth of the state to vote out the NPP-led MDA government for depriving them of employment opportunities in the last five years.
“More than 23,000 job seekers who have registered themselves as unemployed youth and as potential job seekers and yet the present dispensation, the leadership of this present dispensation are keeping the existing vacancies of over 8,000 posts vacant. If this is not deprivation then what is deprivation. If this is not something which should be a reason for people to vote out this government what else should be the reason,” he said.
He said the present government has also failed to create new job opportunities. “Today, we see young man who has completed his engineering, a young man who completed his masters and came out with flying colours in the examination, first class in physics, first class in mathematics, first class in engineering – they land up being victims of this anti-people government, a government which is led by people who do not have the sense of empathy,” he said.
Meghalaya TMC state president Charles Pyngrope said, “We have gathered here to launch a very important scheme. This scheme guarantees the creation of three lakh jobs. Someone may ask – isn’t that a tall order? But for us, it will be our endeavour and commitment to reach that goal because as a party we are gearing up and preparing ourselves to ensure that this is made possible.”
Pyngrope informed that there will be other schemes coming from the TMC maintaining that the party leaders are committed to provide governance that is clean.
Party leaders explained that the MDA government’s failure in creating job opportunities or generating employment had caused 37 per cent of the youth to be excluded from the active worker population of the state. The number varies across the rural (42 per cent) and urban (20 per cent) populace of the state. This has a direct impact on families as Meghalaya has the highest dependency ratio (65.9) in the country.
The MYE card is the second flagship scheme launched by the TMC, the first was the WE Card scheme for women launched in December.