Meghalaya: VPP demands social audit, cites lack of accountability in MDA governance

Correspondent

Shillong: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) has raised strong concerns over what it terms a serious lack of accountability in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) Government led by Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma. Stressing the need for verifiable data and outcome-driven assessments, VPP spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh called for social audits of government schemes and projects to ensure transparency and public accountability.

“Seven years of the MDA Government under the leadership of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma—how do you see the performance of the present government? The achievement of the government, we need to have certain verifiable data,” Myrboh said, stressing that performance should be evaluated through transparent methods, not political rhetoric.

He questioned the government’s claims across sectors, particularly in education. “When the report came out, we placed at the bottom at the national level in the PGI ranking,” he said, pointing out the gap between proclaimed achievements and actual outcomes. “We need to measure by certain verifiable data. For example, how many people have been lifted out of poverty? Learning outcomes of the students? Then we need to know the industrial output of the state. We need to know the employment generated. How much unemployment has declined.”

Referring to high-budget projects like the IGP Point and flagship programmes like Focus and Focus Plus, he demanded clarity on results. “We are not simply interested about your advertisement. We are interested in knowing the outcomes,” Myrboh asserted. “I don’t remember exactly the amount but the outcome… it does not commensurate with the money spent. When we hear the amount spent, it is really gigantic.”

He argued that a social audit mechanism is essential: “The government has not come and in fact, there should be the kind of social audits of all those kind of schemes the government has been doing so that we can really know whether the targets are achieved or not.”

Criticizing claims that Meghalaya is a power-surplus state, Myrboh said, “The reality is that if you call a few kms from Shillong, people are experiencing power cuts almost every day. A slight rainfall would result in power shutdown.” Drawing from personal experience in his constituency, he added, “You want to believe that for days you are not having electricity… and the minister, he dared to declare that Meghalaya is a power-surplus state. And this is like a big joke on the people.”

On infrastructure, Myrboh acknowledged the central government’s role, especially under Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, in road expansion but said maintenance remains a major concern. “When it comes to repair of the roads in many villages… roads remain unrepaired for decades. So we have such kind of condition and therefore we should stress on the making of new roads, but maintaining old roads also is required.”

Calling for institutional mechanisms to ensure accountability, he said, “It’s not only the VPP but this is a question that everybody should ask. Accountability ultimately is very important. For example, when you talk about the Smart City project, what do you see—the outcome of that?”

He further emphasized, “To be accountable to the people, it should not be on the basis of number of MLAs you have in the Assembly. The more authority being given by the people to you, you should be even more responsible to the people and be accountable.” When asked directly if the MDA Government lacked accountability, Myrboh responded: “Definitely.”

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