Shillong, Jan 11: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday questioned the failure of the then Mukul-led Congress government in addressing the unemployment problem faced by the youth of the state and said wearing the AITC jersey will not make people forget that they are the same players.

He was commenting on the recent promise made by the opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) to provide over 3 lakh jobs to unemployed youth if voted to power after the elections slated to be held next month.

“Well, if they were really serious, they would have done it in the last government when they were in power but they did not take any steps or do anything…,” Conrad told reporters.

He said those who were in the then Congress government are now just wearing new jerseys by merging with the AITC. “The same players are now wearing new jerseys and claiming to be new. I think 8 years the people of the state have seen the work that was done and what kind of economic situation and hardships that we faced…,” the CM said.

Conrad, who is also national chief of the National Peoples’ Party (NPP), alleged that the Mukul-led Congress government had failed to get funds to complete many projects, which they have laid foundation and started the work.

“In fact, this government had to ultimately complete those projects. A simple example would be the Ampati Water Supply and if you look at it after the sanction were done, very less amount hardly about Rs 5 to Rs 10 crore was released during the past government’s time and it was this, government even though it is a constituency in the opposition, even then since it is important for the people of Ampati, almost close to Rs 100 crore is being released for this project,” he said.

“Hence, it is sad that they forget during their time and just because they are in their new jersey, they think that people will forget the fact that they were not able to do the kind of work and deliver at that point in time and that is why people voted for a change,” he added.

The chief minister further said people are now seeing things moving forward as the government has created different kinds of programmes to help farmers, women’s groups, self-help groups and other areas where job creation or employment generation has come in. “Therefore, just making statements doesn’t mean anything, anybody can make any statement but facts and numbers speak for themselves,” he stated.