The NPP has said that the promises made by AITC chief Mamata Banerjee during her election meeting in North Garo Hills today are mere election promises, “which sound good on paper and in publicity materials”.
“They have termed their baaki (credit) cards – ‘We Card’ and ‘MYE’ – as revolutionary without realising that such intervention, if could be done, will take any State on a debt trap, which has happened in the case of West Bengal,” the NPP said in a statement today.
Stating that The WE Card Scheme is actually the rebranded name of the Lakshmir Bhandar Scheme of the West Bengal government, the NPP said that the Trinamool Congress government of West Bengal has a per capita debt of around Rs 59,000 crore in 2022-23, and this scheme is one of the reasons increasing this debt.
“West Bengal’s accumulated debt for 2022-23 is expected to rise to 5.86 lakh crore, up from Rs 5.28 lakh crore as on March 31, 2022. The West Bengal government is already struggling with severe financial crunch and finding it hard to keep afloat its social schemes, and this scheme has also affected other schemes,” the NPP said, adding, “With such steep mountain of debts to clear, it is clear that the All India Trinamool Congress will also make Meghalaya fall into a debt trap, and leave its people to face the brunt of it.”
The NPP also urged citizens of Meghalaya not to fall victim to such hollow promises being made by Trinamool Congress.
“We would like the citizens of our State not to get carried away by such promises,” it added.