The Meghalaya government’s youth empowering mission, YESS has been misused and the beneficiary is the youth wing of the National People’s Party (NPP)) in Garo Hills.
The allegation was levelled by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state vice-president and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak.
“Conrad Sangma is using YESS fund to strengthen his youth wing. In Garo Hills, genuine youths are deprived under YESS. The Rs 1 lakh which was supposed to be given to the youth clubs under for youth engagement through empowered youth organisations are diverted to the NPP youths,” Marak said.
In a statement, Marak stated NPP youths have been asked to form clubs. He said, “The administration helped to register last Saturday and are asked to open an account particularly in the rural bank where an amount of Rs 1 lakh will be given before the code of conduct is imposed. This money will be used politically to lure votes during election.”
YESS (Youth Engagement through empowered Youth organizations) is a mission launched by the MDA government to provide financial assistance to registered youth clubs and organisations across the State to carry out developmental activities relating to various focused areas like environmental protection and conservation substance abuse, teenage pregnancies, career counselling, etc.
However, Marak stated that genuine clubs and registered organisations were not informed of the scheme. “It’s a wonder how these NPP clubs got their registration within a day, that too on Saturday? And how their accounts are opened even on Sundays? Normal clubs takes weeks to register their clubs and open an account takes days,” he questioned.
He accused the Chief Minister of looting central fund in an “inappropriate way.” “The NPP led government deprived the genuine youth groups and registered organisations to facilitate YESS scheme to his youth wings,” he alleged, adding, “YESS is messed in Garo Hills.”
