Shillong, Dec 31: The BJP has decided to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission against the Meghalaya Financial Inclusion for Women Empowerment (MFI WE) scheme, launched by Trinamool Congress (TMC) to provide assured monthly income support of Rs 1,000 per woman per household per month in the state.
The MFI WE, also called “WE Card”, was launched by TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Shillong on December 13, 2022.
The party has promised to roll out the scheme after its government is installed in Meghalaya after the ensuing elections.
TMC’s Vice-President George B Lyngdoh said that opposing ‘WE Card’ exposes BJP’s anti-poor politics. He claimed that 1.50 lakh families have already registered for the scheme.
BJP’s Meghalaya state president Ernest Mawrie said that there is no mention of the reason as to why this scheme is required and the scheme is nothing but an attempt to exert influence on voters.
“The TMC did not disclose how they raise the funds for the scheme,” he told the media adding that such scheme should be seen as corrupt and unethical practice under the sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, as the intent of the scheme is nothing more but to bribe the voters.
Claiming that the ‘WE Card’ scheme failed in West Bengal, the BJP leader accused the TMC of making false promises since they do not have any issue of development agenda and, hence, they have come up with the scheme.
TMC’s Vice-President George B Lyngdoh on Friday said that since its launch on December 13 by Mamata Banerjee, over 1.50 lakh families have registered for the WE Card Scheme.
Referring to Meghalaya BJP’s announcement to move EC on the scheme, Lyngdoh said, “This is an attempt of the BJP to block a pro-people scheme which is designed to uplift the poor and marginalised. It only exposes BJP’s anti-poor and anti-development politics. It also shows that BJP has a disregard for the needs of the people of Meghalaya.”
The Meghalaya TMC leader also reiterated that the WE Card scheme is meant to serve the people of Meghalaya and throws light on the vision of governance put forward by Meghalaya TMC.
“Similar models have been used all over the country and in other countries where such schemes have only empowered the community to take giant strides towards development. We seek blessings and support from the people for a government that knows what it will do in the next five years unlike those who think only three months before the elections,” he added.
“Just ahead of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, the Centre extended the free food scheme only for three months. Multiple sops were announced in Gujarat ahead of the elections amounting to Rs 80,000 crore, which included around Rs 29,000 crore worth of projects unveiled by the Prime Minister himself,” he said.
He also questioned the sudden announcement of Rs 20,900 crore for the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi by PM Modi ahead of the UP elections this year, which will give Rs 6,000 to farmers via direct transfer.
