Mizoram Congress Has Fulfilled 4.7% Of Election Manifestoes

Aizawl, Oct 29 : The Lal Thanhawla-led Congress Government in Mizoram, which has entered into the second half of its five-year term, has fulfilled eight points of its 167-point election manifestoes and is working on another 98 points.

The progress report was highlighted in a booklet ‘Chalfilh’ prepared by civic organization PRISM (People’s Right to Information and Development Implementing Society of Mizoram) and released at the eight Mizoram Watch programme here today.

The Congress Government had spent 34 months in office, which is 56.67 per cent of the five-year term, and had 26 months left.

Surprisingly, eight of the 167 objectives the Congress party had promised to fulfill, had already been achieved during the previous ministry run by Zoramthanga-led Mizo National Front.

As of the seventh Mizoram Watch programme held in last April, the Congress Government had fulfilled 4.7 per cent of its objectives and was working on 96. The number of points being attended to, has increased to 98.

It was also highlighted that the Congress Government had not followed up 45 points while it had gone opposite to eight points of its election manifestoes.

Though all the political parties were invited, only the ruling Congress sent its representatives to the programme.

The three opposition parties- Mizo National Front, Zoram Nationalist Party and Mizoram People’s Conference, had boycotted the eighth edition of the Mizoram Watch as they felt the programme had been pre-arranged in favour of the ruling party.

"Though there is no improvement in the achievement rate since the previous Mizoram Watch programme in April this year, the number of manifestoes followed up had increased by two during the last five months," PRISM president Vanlalruata said during the function at I and PR auditorium here.

"There is some improvement. It is up to the people to decide whether the degree of improvement is laudable," he added.

The PRISM, which organised the Mizoram Watch programme in association with its like-minded organisations, stated that the Congress Government, which had spent more than half of its term, let 49 points of the election manifestoes remain "unattended."

"While the Congress Ministry is following up 98 points of its promises made during elections, another 45 points remain unattended," the PRISM president reiterated.

Emphasising the need to organise such programmes, the PRISM president said, "Once a party forms a ministry, its manifestoes become the people's manifestoes."

According to PRISM, the fulfillment of eight points of the election manifestoes could not be called remarkable achievement given the facts that they dealt with smaller issues such as formation of Ethics Committee, Law Commission, Amendment of Municipalities Act, hiking sports budget and ex-servicemen welfare.