SHILLONG: While the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma rejected the demand of the Opposition Leader Mukul Sangma to withdraw the petition against Meghalaya Lokayukta on coal probe, the MDA partners are silent on the matter.
Earlier, the United Democratic Party (UDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Hill State People’s Democratic party (HSPDP) and even the People’s Democratic Front (PDF) had demanded stripping of Home portfolio of James Sangma over the issue of illegal transportation of coal but they are quiet over the decision of the state government to challenge the order of Lokayukta for a CBI probe into the coal racket.
The Shillong Times on Thursday tried to speak to the leaders in charge of political parties, MLAs and Ministers of all the MDA partners for their stand on the move of the government but they were not willing to speak on the matter.
When contacted, the top leaders of the HSPDP, UDP and PDF maintained that they have not yet discussed the matter and they would deliberate on the issue before taking a stand.
The leaders of BJP who are keen to fight corruption too remained quiet and did not respond when their stand was sought on the Lokayukta issue.
Many see the stand of the MDA government as a way to block Lokayukta from further pursuing the CBI probe into the matter while the Opposition has already termed the move of the government to file a petition in the court as a way to destroy the evidence about illegal coal mining.
However, the MDA government rejected the demand of the Opposition to withdraw the case.
Talking to media persons on Thursday, Conrad said that the state government is following a proper legal process and all the actions that have been taken were based on the legal advice given by the Advocate General and the law department
On the delay in setting up the full bench of Lokayukta, the chief minister said the process is on even as he ridiculed the Opposition for raising the issue by saying that the past government did not even want to put up a Lokayukta chairman.
“Earlier, they took years and years just to put up a chairman and the ruling now did not take even a year to put up a chairman that shows the commitment,” the chief minister said.
On the accusation of facilitating a coal cartel as pointed out by the opposition, the chief minister said that the state government filed the petition since the provisions under the Lokayukta were not being followed.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, who had welcomed the Lokayukta direction on coal probe earlier, has now defended the move of the state government.
He said that as per the mandate of the Lokayukta Act, there is no provision for Lokayukta to hand over the case to CBI.
“So, we have no option but to put things straight and hence the question of withdrawing the petition does not arise,” he said.
Tynsong also maintained that the government is not fighting with Lokayukta but it is a question of following the mandate prescribed by the Lokayukta Act.
“Once the Lokayukta does that, we have nothing to say,” he said.
