Shillong, Jan 17: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday referred to the opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)’s ‘We Card’ & ‘MYE Card’ as “baki card” and said that the FOCUS and FOCUS+ are real schemes which have benefited the people of the state to a large extent.
Sangma said the We Card and the MYE Card are promises of the TMC and people in the villages have registered and taken the cards and “they are all saying its a baki card”.
He however said the difference between what the NPP-led MDA government is doing and the TMC’s promises is that “we are actually really giving already, we are actually doing things on the ground, we are actually supporting the farmers and the women’s self-help groups and the different youth groups even before we promise or even if you before we talk about it.”
“For our government it is about action and we have been clear and we have actually done it and ours is not a “baki card” but ours is a real thing that’s happening in the ground. FOCUS and FOCUS+ are real things, people are getting benefits from it,” the CM said while claiming that more than 3 lakh farmers have already benefited from FOCUS and FOCUS+.
The MDA coalition partners like the BJP and UDP have recently alleged the NPP of misusing the government’s schemes for its own political gain.
The UDP had also lodged a complaint on the matter with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India.
When sought for his comment, the chief minsiter however said the FOCUS program was started in March 2021.
“That’s like almost an almost two years back and if it was from the point of view of elections we would have started this a few months back. Therefore, they can take it in whatever way they want but from our point of view, this is a program that we feel is going to be a major form of economic revolution at the grassroot level,” he said.
Sangma said that through such program, the government intend to reach the poorest of the poor in the society.
The idea is to support any producer groups at a group level or an individual level – they can be farmers, people making or weaving clothes, people making small handicrafts and others.
He further explained: “Now imagine if there’s a group of 20 people and they get 1 lakh rupees every year in their group account and Rs 1 lakh every year in the personal accounts, that’s two lakh rupees, these groups will get every year.
Imagine if this goes on for the next 10 years and in the next 10 years that means this groups will get about 20 lakh rupees in the accounts hence, if they are able to rotate this money in the right manner then they will be able to create a small kind of a savings and a small banking system within their group of 20 lakh rupees which is not a small amount for a group of 20 people.
You multiply this into, you know, 40,000 groups so you can imagine that when 400-500 crores is being pumped into their system every year for the next 10 years which means 4,500 crores goes into the economy in the next 10 years.
This cash flow is going to be there available at the farmers hand, at the producer groups hand to be able to then utilize it in whatever productive manner they feel is a is going to create a revolution at the grassroots level because the cash availability is what has been the biggest challenge for farmers and small groups.
They wanted to do things but two bank loans are not available at the right time and at the right percentage -so all this issue will be address by these programs.”
Also stating that the FOCUS is a massive program, the chief minister said, “It has been thought in detail and those who feels it is election oriented and all, they may think that. It is something I don’t really want to comment on but it is something we have been doing for a long time.”
