The opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) on Thursday launched its second phase of campaign unveiling ‘MYE Card’ – the TMC’s Meghalaya Youth Empowerment Scheme. Through this, the Meghalaya TMC promised to create over 3 lakh jobs and providing financial assistance of Rs 1,000 per month for all unemployed youth under its Meghalaya Youth Empowerment (MYE) Scheme if voted to power in the state.
The MYE scheme was launched by the state president Charles Pyngrope, legislature party leader and leader of opposition Mukul Sangma at Pinewood Hotel here.
Unemployed youth between the ages of 21-40 years and are native of Meghalaya can register for the scheme. The registered youth will receive a unique ID-enabled MYE Card which will serve as an assured guarantee for the scheme.
Sangma said that the announcement was a bold decision taken by the party.
He said, “Many will question can you really create jobs of that figure 3 lakhs. We try to find out if we can really do it. I am telling you, I am sharing this resolve yes we can. We can because we know how to do it, because we have the commitment, the resolve, the sincerity, the love and the compassion.”
The former chief minister said that the TMC leaders are not self-centric politicians and they belong to different breeds of politicians.
“Find any other element to really confront me when I say this. But on the contrary you have all those bunch of politicians who belong to different categories, please don’t compare them with us as we belong to different breeds of politicians. We want to be remembered for the good things, we want to leave behind a legacy for the good things we do,” he said.
Sangma said, “Come and join and be part of this great movement to generate this momentum of hope and connect with this agenda and position the state as the state which will be talked about for all the good things, a state which will not have any reasons for the youth to be hopeless, for the youth to be frustrated and to be angry.”
The legislature party leader further said that the MYE Card will be a true empowerment to the youth.
“Do you believe only 23,200 people are actually unemployed who are registered as per government record, it is not. But if we go by this figure we will be misled by the data itself. Therefore, MYE Card is going to remind again and again how many jobs we are able to create as per the promise that we made and how much more we need to do. Therefore, all these crucial sectors will be activated and all those crucial sectors which revolve around the growth and prosperity of the people will be activated and we will remain committed to this promise that we are making,” he said.
Moreover, Sangma asked the youth of the state to vote out the NPP-led MDA government for depriving them of employment opportunities in the last five years.
“More than 23,000 job seekers who have registered themselves as unemployed youth and as potential job seekers and yet the present dispensation, the leadership of this present dispensation are keeping the existing vacancies of over 8,000 posts vacant. If this is not deprivation then what is deprivation. If this is not something which should be a reason for people to vote out this government what else should be the reason,” he said.
He said the present government has also failed to create new job opportunities. “Today, we see young man who has completed his engineering, a young man who completed his masters and came out with flying colours in the examination, first class in physics, first class in mathematics, first class in engineering – they land up being victims of this anti-people government, a government which is led by people who do not have the sense of empathy,” the former CM said.
TMC state president Charles Pyngrope said, “We have gathered here to launch a very important scheme. This scheme guarantees the creation of 3 lakh jobs. Someone may ask – isn’t that a tall order? But for us, it will be our endeavour and commitment to reach that goal because as a party we are gearing up and preparing ourselves to ensure that this is made possible.”
Party leaders explained that the MDA government’s failure in creating job opportunities or generating employment had caused 37% of the youth to be excluded from the active worker population of the state. The number varies across the rural (42%) and urban (20%) populace of the state. This has a direct impact on families as Meghalaya has the highest dependency ratio (65.9) in the country.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya TMC said that it will be undertaking a massive state-wide campaign with thousands of party workers and volunteers who will be conducting door-to-door visits to introduce the scheme to the people in the coming days