North-Eastern Hill University Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) president Prof. Lakhon Kma today said that his decision to contest the Lok Sabha polls was not a hasty one.
“For many years I have been contemplating this. I see our State is lacking in every sphere. We don’t lack people who are farsighted. I have decided to contest with one intention and that is to bring development to the State,’ Kma told media persons here.
According to him, in his website www.lakhonkma.com the motto is ‘inclusive growth’.
He said that when one talks about development it should start from the most deprived areas of the State.
Kma said that when he looked at the rural areas, the villagers should have employment so that throughout the year they don’t have to worry.
“In the rural areas agriculture is only for a certain part of the year and after which they have to look for employment elsewhere. There is a need to provide them employment throughout the year so that they do not have to grow. I want to see that 10-15 years down the line the BPL should disappear. But what we are seeing now is that this poverty line is increasing,” he said.
Kma said that his intention is to bring a ‘new Meghalaya’ and it should start now.
He also said that he will adopt ‘zero tolerance’ on corruption and it should be done away with.
Stating that Meghalaya being a small State but everywhere there is underdevelopment, Kma said, “But the leaders of the State are getting richer and the public are getting poorer.”
He also said that during the three terms of current Shillong MP, Vincent H. Pala there has been no development and this shows that there is a need to have a change.
According to Kma, every election there is a hope that a new government will bring in development but every time it is the same.
He said that his main agenda is to uplift the education sector and the State is a laggard on this front.
“We need to strengthen primary education in the State because we see that if our children don’t get proper education there will be no human resources,” Kma said.
He also expressed concern over the lack of trained teachers and the huge dropout rate is increasing and somewhere the State or its leaders are missing something for not being able to keep children in classrooms.
“Education is taking a dip because of the way we teach and due to our policy,” Kma said.
He also said that another one of his priorities is to strengthen the health sector.
Kma said that the PHCs and CHCs at present cannot cater to the residents of those areas in terms of medicines, treatments, nor there are specialists and people have to come to Shillong for better healthcare.
He also said that initially he had asked for a ticket from one of the political parties but was declined.
