Ibobi belittles BJP Govt's award claims
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, February 02 2022: The then Congress government used to receive numerous awards for its various developmental works.

Now, the ruling BJP government claims to have won various awards as well.

It would be best if the government was to clarify to the people what were the awards that had been won, said Congress Legislative Party leader and ex-Chief Minister Okram Ibobi.

Addressing a press at Congress Bhawan here Wednesday, Ibobi remarked that BJP is still unable to fulfil many of the promises made to the people before the last elections.

Congress party has been enlightening the masses in this matter through the media from time to time.

Thus, he hoped the people would properly discern the real works done by the BJP government and decide which political party to vote for that would be competent enough to form the new government.

Commenting on the new Union Budget, the ex-CM said that the budget focuses on Swachh Bharat.

Various works have been taken up under this campaign and even the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi is celebrated as National Cleanliness Day.

However, the BJP government seems reluctant to mention the name of the father of the nation and continues to call it a cleanliness campaign.

This is nothing new as BJP has spent most of its time renaming the previous and existing scheme programmes, he remarked.

Questioning the progress of the cleanliness level in Imphal City under Swachh Bharat, Ibobi said that it has been 8 years since the Smart City project was taken up.

Additionally, the Congress government had set up Solid Waste Management Plant in 100-acre of land and completed 99 percent of Phase-I.However, the present state of the Plant is unknown, including that of the Phase-II.

The ex-CM continued: "The ruling government claims that it received several awards from India Today for being one of the best functioning governments amongst the small states.

However, PM Modi, who is also the chairman of Niti Aayog, has stated that Manipur is one of the most backward states.

As such, people are confused on which of the statements are correct.

"At the time of the Congress government, the state received an award for 3 consecutive years for having low infant mortality rate.

The state received Rs 300 crore a year, which helped in establishment of JNIMS.

On top of this, the state received several awards in the agricultural sector.

The then Congress government also set the first ever system in the country for electronic transfer of salaries to government employees, for which it received an award as well.

"However, after the Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power in 2014, it transformed the Planning Commission into Niti Aayog, depriving the state of various benefits and ministry funds received under the tag of special category state.

I myself argued against such unfairness in front of the GST council.

The people of the state should be made aware if Manipur still belongs to the special category group.

The big question at the moment is how such a small state with no resources is meant to survive, considering that the centre considers the resource-less north eastern states as states which only come to beg for money.

"Meanwhile, the then Congress Government allocated Rs 30 crore in the 2016-17 budget to encourage entrepreneurs.

However, it is not known how many youth have truly benefited from the Start-Up scheme under the present government," he remarked.

Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president N Loken, who also attended the press meet, said that BJP has been producing vision documents highlighting the works to be taken up, but the question is how many of the works have been truly fulfilled.

Apart from suppressing the local bodies, the present BJP government has led Manipur to fall behind the other northeast states.

Furthermore, it has failed to pay the wages of MGNREGS workers till date, although the centre had sanctioned around Rs 333 crore for the same.

Thus, he urged the people to properly think which party has been truly working for them and assist Congress in forming the new government.

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