Shillong, March 6: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Monday asked all political parties in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance – 2.0 (MDA 2.0) to execute their manifestos or face state-wide protests.

HYC president Robertjune Kharjahrin said in the next five years, the HYC would follow the agendas of all MDA 2.0 political parties, and after the government is formed the council will meet with the heads of departments to complete all manifesto objectives.

“In their respective manifestos, both NPP and UDP has assured to implement Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Meghalaya, the UDP has also promised to review the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the Inter State boundary, however the NPP has clearly said that they will not review the MoU, so what’s next now,” Kharjahrin recalled.

He also noted that although the NPP has avoided discussing the state reservation policy, UDP has pledged to examine it, eliminate personal interviews, and have on-camera interviews. The question is whether the UDP will keep these pledges, which are important to the state’s youth.

Kharjahrin further stated that before the elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah stated that Meghalaya is one of the most corrupt states in India and that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto promised to set up an enquiry committee against corruption headed by a Supreme Court (SC) judge, but now both BJP and NPP are in the alliance. “Beside upliftment of a girl child in Meghalaya, the BJP in their manifesto has also promised to settle the boundary issue, to set up an enquiry committee against corruption, to create 5 lakhs jobs, to provide financial assistance of Rs. 1000 to unemployed youths, so since BJP is part of MDA 2.0, we expect the party to fulfil these promises besides many others,” he noted.

Furthermore, he claimed that Meghalaya’s chief minister has been from Garo Hills for over 10 years, which has hurt Khasi Hills’ growth and other interests. He said the recent programme at Motphran to pressure the two Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) legislators to withdraw support to the National People’s Party (NPP)-led alliance was in line with the people’s desire for a Khasi chief minister.

Kharjahrin said the HYC is not against the NPP appointing a Khasi chief minister, but the party has already picked Conrad K Sangma as chief minister, however, he expressed resentment over the two HSPDP MLAs for not supporting the UDP to establish a regional party-led alliance government.