TMC government will make Meghalaya fall into a debt trap, claims ruling NPP

The National People’s Party (NPP) reiterated that the promises made by AITC chief Mamata Banerjee during her election meeting in North Garo Hills on January 18 are mere election promises, 'which sound good on paper and in publicity materials'.

Further, NPP said that TMC has termed their baaki (credit) card - ‘We Card’ and ‘MYE’ - as revolutionary without realising that such intervention it could be done, will take any State into a debt trap, which has happened in the case of West Bengal.

Alleging that the TMC government will lead the state into a Debt Trap, the NPP said, "The WE Card Scheme is actually the rebranded name of the Lakshmi Bhandar Scheme of the West Bengal government. The AITC government of West Bengal has a per capita debt of around Rs 59,000 in 2022-23, and this scheme is one of the reasons for increasing this debt."

The NPP claimed that the Bengal government has been paying between Rs 80,000 - Rs 90,000 crore as debt repayment and interest to its borrowers every year. 

With this, every citizen of Bengal is now paying Rs 8,000 as debt every year.

"National People’s Party would like to tell its citizens not to fall victim to such hollow promises being made by AITC," said the NPP. 

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The National People’s Party asserted that the party's mission is to take the State forward and urged its citizens not to get carried away by such promises.

Slamming the TMC led -West Bengal government, it further added that Mamata Banerjee’s government accumulated debt for 2022-23 which is expected to rise to 5.86 lakh crore, up from Rs 5.28 lakh crore as on March 31, 2022. 

"West Bengal government is already struggling with a severe financial crunch and finding it hard to keep afloat its social schemes, and this scheme has also affected other schemes," said NPP.

With a such steep mountain of debts to clear, it is clear that the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) will also make Meghalaya fall into a debt trap, and leave its people to face the brunt of it.

"National People’s Party will never allow AITC to fool its citizens with fake promises. We will expose them in totality," claimed NPP.

It is unclear as to from where the AITC will bring the money to implement the schemes, or if it will divert Meghalaya’s funds to West Bengal.

According to the ruling NPP,

West Bengal Unemployment Statistics

West Bengal has 2nd highest number of women job seekers as per employment exchange 2020 stats – 24.6 lakhs more than Meghalaya’s total women population. As per Employment exchange Stats - The largest number of jobseekers on the live register during the year 2019 were in West Bengal (77.6 lakh).

West Bengal Joblessness

The Bengal government claimed they created 10 million jobs, but so far, the state employment exchange reportedly has nearly 3.5 million job-seekers registered.

There are also 2,00,000 permanent jobs across various government departments, besides 1.5 lakh vacant teaching posts. Around 1.3 million applicants for clerical jobs have not got calls since 2018, while 6 lakh aspirants, who had applied for the posts of sub-inspectors and inspectors also didn’t get calls.