On the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) MYE scheme for unemployed youths and WE Card scheme for women, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today said while the TMC makes promises, the NPP is already delivering on the ground.
“We’re actually supporting farmers and women’s self-help groups (SHGs) and youth groups and more than 3 lakh farmers have benefited from FOCUS and FOCUS+,” he said.
FOCUS began in March 2021 and the CM used that as part of his argument that it is not meant to lure voters since it began two whole years before the elections.
“From our point of view, the programme is going to be a major boost for economics. This is a programme where we intend to reach the poorest of the poor. These groups can be farmers, people making small handicrafts, weaving clothes and groups of youngsters who are producing some fruit in terms of processed products. So any producer group, any group that produces anything, is eligible to get this,” he added.
Sangma also said that the PM Kisan programme, a central government initiative, is not suited to Meghalaya, hence the need for FOCUS.
The problem with the central scheme was that it requires farmers to have a minimum plot of agricultural land and land documents registered in their name. That was leaving out a lot of deserving farmers, so the state government went another way, he explained.
