Staff Reporter
SHILLONG:
The Voice of the People Party (VPP) on February 15 released its vision document for Meghalaya.
The ten point vision document was released by party president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit in the presence of other members of the party.
Basaiawmoit said that the party’s vision for Meghalaya is to have a state that is territorially secured and economically developed where poverty is eliminated. Also the state shall have strong and decisive leadership and that peace and public security prevails, that will ensure all round development of the state.
The VPP president also said that the VPP envisions that politics in the state is based on strong pillars of substantive democracy with essential features of rule of law, transparency, accountability, responsibility and equity.
Basaiawmoit also stated that the VPP’s vision for the state is that the its resources shall be distributed equitably based on social justice and shall be sustainably used, and also that the traditional land ownership system shall be maintained and strengthened.
He also said that the party’s vision for the state is that the environment and the ecosystem shall be restored and preserved.
He also said that the VPP’s vision for Meghalaya is that the state shall be an investment friendly state, the youth of the state shall be empowered morally and intellectually capable of competing with the rest of the world and that it shall be the state where gender equity prevails.
“The party envisions the Meghalaya that is restored with the old good values inherited from our forefathers; that is revived morally, intellectually and materially; and transformed into a model state for the rest of India,” the VPP president said.
Basaiawmoit also said that the VPP is strongly embedded in the principle of clean politics for achieving these noble objectives.
According to the VPP in the 1970s, important initiatives were undertaken which tried to address a range of issues of the state.
“Had the vision and those initiatives been pursued sincerely our beloved state would not have been in the conditions that we are at present,” the VPP president said.
According to him, visionary leaders put in place the Meghalaya Transfer of Land (Regulation) Act, 1971, the Meghalaya Residential Permit Bill, 1973 and the Meghalaya Employment Bill, 1980 which were passed by the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly though they failed to become laws.
He said that there was an attribution to the opposition of the Indian National Congress that the Meghalaya Residential Permit Bill failed to become an Act.
“Had this piece of legislation been made a law and implemented, decades of unnecessary turmoil and movements would have been averted,” Basaiawmoit said.
He also said that the Education Commission of Meghalaya was formed in 1977 which submitted its report in 1978 and similarly, the government of Meghalaya instituted the Land Reforms Commission for Khasi Hills which submitted its report in 1975.
“But the vision of the prosperous and secured Meghalaya was diluted and eventually forgotten under the growing influence of the national party,” Basaiawmoit said.
He regretted that the principled and issue based politics was replaced by politics of corrupt practices characterized by horse trading, lack of accountability, irresponsibility and unethical practices.
The VPP president pointed out that there was a paradigm shift of politics from being the concern for common good to the politics of greed, self and family aggrandizement.
He said that this is particularly true after the entry of those who view politics as the means to further their business interests.
Basaiawmoit said that the entry of business centric politicians coupled with dynastic politics has produced a pernicious impact on different sectors of the life of the state whether in the fields of health, education, environment, agriculture and other economic activities, power, borders and local governance.
According to him, this has created on the one hand, disillusionment amongst the people who even questioned whether there is anything that the state should be proud of in the last five decades.
“On the other hand, the political leaders have inculcated the dependency syndrome in the mind of people for their short term political gains no matter how disastrous it would be for the future of the state,” he said.
The VPP president said that it is rather unthinkable that Meghalaya, which is blessed with rich resources, would be the fifth poorest state in India and the poorest in the northeastern region.