GUWAHATI, Feb 12 - Sceptical of the schemes recently announced by the State government, Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia today said that the sops to various communities before the election year, which were not included in the Vision Document or the earlier Budget, are totally election oriented and a waste of government funds.
Saikia said by announcing monetary grants to certain sections of the people of Assam today, the government is trying to divide society and giving away money with the sole motive of garnering votes. �The sops announced today are in total contradiction to Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma�s earlier statement in the Assam Legislative Assembly that the State government is not interested in gifting fish to the people and is instead interested in teaching people techniques of catching fish so that they do not have to depend on government sources for their livelihood,� Saikia said.
He said the government is for all and as such, it should rely on the Economic Survey of Assam, publications of the Assam Statistical Department and the number of unemployed persons registered in various Employment Exchanges of Assam and give whatever it wants to give to all unemployed persons on the basis of socio-economic backwardness, without dividing them on community basis.
�Gifting Rs 10,000 or Rs 20,000 to youths of the tea garden community will only help them temporarily. Earlier, there was talk that the Govt of Assam would provide loans of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh each to youths under the Swami Vivekananda self-employment scheme. But that scheme is a failure. MUDRA loans which were supposed to be made available without any guarantee also proved to be a non-starter in Assam,� he said, adding that Assam needs better roads, irrigation facilities, agricultural inputs, employment, education facilities, etc.�
He said the government promised 100 schools in tea garden areas in 2016, but that is still a distant dream. Instead, the government has paid money to individual beneficiaries without proper implementation of cashless transactions in the tea gardens and gifted smartphones to garden �sardars�. These short-term gimmicks will not redress the real problems of the tea garden workers, like a minimum daily wage of Rs 350 and poor educational and healthcare facilities, he said.