East Shillong MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh has put an onus on the constituents to judge the performance of their respective MLAs, besides authorities that scrutinises use of schemes in five years.
“The MLAs need not blow their trumpet but let the constituents judge for themselves whether an MLA has performed or not and if not then let the constituents give their verdict through votes because they have been given a time of five years to evaluate this,” she said.
Lyngdoh said that the MLA scheme of Rs 11 crore is nothing for performing MLAs. She said during the peak of Covid-19 pandemic the requirements of the people was infinite, ranging from medical needs, loss of livelihood, etc. and that it was never easy to rebuild a community after a pandemic.
Stating that going through report cards is nothing new for a constituency like East Shillong, the MLA further stated that if people choose her again in 2023, she yearns to develop the marketplace at Malki and funding for mediocre students, though the concept of a self-help group in the city is not that popular.
“We need to have a big focus on self-employment, vocational training and provide other opportunities for our mediocre students. We need rehabilitation centers for those who have fallen prey to drug abuse since most of the rehabilitation centres are not affordable to the common man,” she said, adding that she also wants to address medical facilities for her constituents and create a corpus sort of funds to support families who have members with serious diseases like cancer, heart conditions, mental health, etc where the MHIS cannot cover the high expenses.
Informing that at present she is trying to complete the covering of all the drainages in her constituency that will provide more space for pedestrians, she said, “I also really want to see the widening of the auxiliary roads in my constituency and road access in some areas and offers of land acquisition help just like we were able to fully transform the fire-brigade junction.”
Lyngdoh further said that there is no water crisis at present in her constituency but lamented that the Umkhen water project has not attended to the repair work despite assurances given since 2020.
“I don’t think that there should be a water crisis in our state as a whole but this needs proper monitoring and the water metering system has become very crucial to conserve water,” she said, further expressing concern that if waste management is also not addressed at the earliest then a severe crisis awaits the state.
When it comes to traffic chaos in the Laitumkhrah area, she said that people should also be more responsible and stop looking in one direction and blame everything on their legislators and the government.
“This is another problem that needs a collective decision like parking responsibly, not overtaking and people should also be willing to contribute a portion of their land if the road in various points needs widening, etc” she opined.
