Shillong: The National People’s Party (NPP) on Wednesday termed the promises made by AITC chief Mamata Banerjee during her election meeting in North Garo Hills as ‘mere election promises’, which sound good on paper and in publicity materials.
AITC chief Mamata Banerjee was in Mendipathar in North Garo hills district of Meghalaya on Wednesday, and had urged people of Garo hills to vote in large numbers for her party.
The NPP termed AITC’s baaki (credit) card – ‘We Card’ and ‘MYE’ – as ‘revolutionary’, and said, if implemented, will take Meghalaya on a debt trap.
“The WE Card Scheme is actually the rebranded name of the Lakshmir Bhandar Scheme of the West Bengal government. 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 increasing this debt,” the NPP said.
The Bengal government is paying between Rs. 80,000 – Rs 90,000 crore as debt repayment and interest to its borrowers every year, the NPP claimed.
“Effectively, every citizen of Bengal has to pay Rs 8,000 as debt every year, the NPP said.
The NPP told the voters not to fall victim to such hollow promises being made by AITC. It claimed that West Bengal’s accumulated debt for 2022-23 is expected to rise to 5.86 lakh crore, up from Rs 5.28 lakh crore as on March 31, 2022.
“With 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,” the NPP said in a statement.
