SHILLONG:
National People’s Party (NPP) State President, WR Kharlukhi, on April 19, said that the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), which the coalition parties in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) have been demanding for the last five years will be good for the state, but CMP should not become something to divide parties on political grounds.
Kharlukhi maintained that the CMP should not only be on papers, and if the state has CMP, it must be for the development of the state.
Refuting allegations that the NPP being in power can anytime bring in policies overlooking the CMP at their will, and on the need to have CMP, Kharlukhi said that every minister is given a free hand under MDA, and this is the reason the MDA government lasted for five years, and it is for this reason that ministers working under MDA trust the government and every policy it makes.
“It is just an apprehension or a hearsay that NPP will bulldoze to bring in policies at will, it is not like that as under the MDA all ministers are given free hands in policy making,” he said.
Speaking to media persons on why the CMP was not in place for the last years, Kharlukhi recollected the times when the Planning Board was set up in 2008 to form policies of the state. He said that board was the only board which had eminent people who played significant roles in policy making in Meghalaya, and for the government of India.
“We had Mr Sahai who was the only technical person from the power department to be a secretary to the government of India, then we had Dr Sarla Gopalan, who is the adviser to the United Nations on Food and Agriculture. We also had the director of CBI for law and order, and others, who served in various capacities for the government of India,” he said.