BJP Govt fails to deliver promises: Congress
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, January 15 2022: Terming the double engine claim of the BJP government as a misnomer, Congress party has stated the commerce and industry department is one the failed entity with its false promises of providing jobs to lakhs of educated youths.

Addressing a press conference at Congress Bhawan here on Saturday, MPCC working president MLA K Meghachandra said that the double engine government often claimed that if had fully protected the people of the state from Covid-19 but the Election Commission of India mentioned 57 per cent coverage with first dose and 43 per cent coverage with second dose of vaccination in the state at the time of declaring the poll schedules.

At this rate, the state will suffer major impact from the third wave of the pandemic, which is driven by Omicron variant, he said and added that the BJP government has failed to contain the pandemic once again.

Regarding the Commerce and Industries department, the MLA said that the minister concerned made a commitment on July 20, 2017 to provide jobs to 1.5 lakh youths and the same commitment was also given by the chief minister on October 6, 2017.He then questioned the number of jobs the department had created in the last five years.

On July 31, 2017, the then union home minister Kiren Rijiju, in response to a question raised by Rajya Sabha MP K Bhabananda, stated that the Centre has approved setting up of nth IRB.

However, the government has failed to complete the recruitment process not only for IRB but also for MR.These are some examples of failure of the double engine government of BJP, he said.

The Congress MLA also said that the party had finalised processes for setting up industrial estates in Thoubal, Bishnupur and Lamboi Khongnangkhong but the BJP government has not been able to take up any such new projects.

Creating job opportunities without setting up industries would be impossible.

Though the minister concerned assured of reviving the Loitang Khunou spinning mill, no measures have been taken up till date, he said.

Meghachandra maintained that what he said about works department earlier was based on facts and figures mentioned in official documents and reports he received from the department.

He questioned the reason for not able to issue work Orders for projects which have already got technical approval.

Since the government can no longer issue new work order, road connectivity projects to be taken up in different assembly constituencies will be stalled.

He also charged the works department and BJP government of misappropriating fund in relation to airport road repairing project and road connectivity projects for all the assembly constituencies.

The finance department issued two office memorandums on September 24 and October 22, 2020 restricting departments from utilising full budget allocation and allowing only up to a ceiling of 40 to 60 per cent for different departments.

Works department was allowed to utilise 60 per cent of allotted funds.

Despite the restrictions, the government allocated huge funds in the 2020 21 and 2021-22 budget, he claimed and demanded the government to make public the whereabouts of the unutilised funds.

Even if the unutilised funds have been diverted towards Covid management, the government should bring out a detailed report on the fund management, the MLA said.

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