The ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government has little in the way of a common minimum programme and is basically uncoordinated, Mylliem MDC Ronnie V Lyngdoh, of the Congress, has told Highland Post.
“How does one run a state with five-six political parties with no Common Minimum Programme?” he asked.
He also said that politics should not be about an individual’s petty consideration but more about the welfare of the people and the development of the state as a whole.
“We have to have policymakers who think about the interest of the people and not of individuals. We need leaders with a vision for the state,” Lyngdoh, a former cabinet minister before he lost his seat in 2018, said.
Stating that the state of Meghalaya is going to celebrate 50 years of statehood, he lamented that the state does not have anything to show the world that it has excelled in some sectors or been able to stand on its own feet.
“We are not able to generate any revenue except some from the minerals even though the state of Meghalaya has huge potential in the agriculture, horticulture, floriculture sectors, dairy development, tourism, which is a great shame and we are still far behind and lacking in every sector including the education and health sector, employment, etc,” he said.
“We are not able to produce national-level athletes. People who have completed professional courses like nursing, medical, and so forth in thousands are unemployed. Even in Shillong city, there is poverty everywhere because politics is not serving the people but few individuals and families,” he said.
He worried that the unemployed youth is a tinderbox waiting to explode if nothing is done to generate jobs.
Lyngdoh said that it is high time that the development of the state and uplifting the people’s standard of living come first than any self-interest petty politics.
“We are blessed with the most beautiful state full of resources and we just need to put the policy in place and if people are fed up with the system, then all the politicians are to blame,” he said.
