All India Trinamool Congress leader and former chief minister Dr. Mukul Sangma has lashed out at the MDA government for misusing the funds for Integrated Basin Development and Livelihood Promotion (IBDLP) programme in the State.
Addressing the block meeting of his party at Tikrikilla today, Dr. Sangma said that during his tenure as chief minister he tried ensuring three stable income sources for each family under the IBDLP programme.
“The Government of India could not provide us with adequate funds. So I sourced money from various international funding agencies like the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and JICA,” he said.
Stating the reason behind his personal attachment with the IBDLP programme, Dr. Sangma became emotional and said, “I understand the need for programmes such as the IBDLP. I am the son of an educator. I struggled while growing up, with only a meagre income from my father as economic support. I know the hardships of being born poor.”
He also said that during his tenure he was able to establish 117 educational institutions across the State with the Human Capital Development funds from the Asian Development Bank.
“However, the MDA government did not provide any utilisation certificate to the Asian Development Bank, and therefore our State lost our hard-earned funding,” Dr. Sangma added.
Unifying the crowd with a message of service and harmony, Dr. Sangma commented, “We may belong to different political parties but we all belong to Meghalaya. The Meghalaya Trinamool Congress intends to put the nation first. By strengthening the party, we would strengthen the foundation of our country. The welfare of people is our religion.”
The huge gathering was also attended by Mahendraganj MLA Dikkanchi D. Shira, Chokpot MLA Lazarus M. Sangma, Kharkutta MDC Cherak W. Momin and other party leaders.
Earlier, Dr. Sangma inaugurated the party office at Tikrikilla.
