By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, Conrad Sangma, has slammed Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma over the delay in finalization of the Meghalaya Mining Policy.
Sangma, while taking note of the delay in the implementation of the Policy, said, “We have been saying time and again that the Chief Minister is more of words and less of action.”
The delay in the approval of the policy by the Cabinet took a new turn when Deputy Chief Minister in charge Mining and Geology, Bindo M Lanong, recently asserted that the file was pending with the Chief Minister’s office for the past four months, prompting an immediate reaction from Dr Sangma who strongly disapproved of Lanong’s statement.
“I can trust the statement of the Deputy Chief Minister that the file is lying in the Chief Minister’s office only,” Conrad said.
While giving his thoughts on the Mining Policy, the Opposition leader stated that the State Government must ensure that the local people are not affected and interests of the local community must be looked after in the said Policy.
It may be mentioned that the Policy has been hanging fire since 2005 and the State Cabinet had deferred the passage of the proposed Bill on two occasions citing lapses that several issues needed to be addressed.
According to Conrad, the State Government must also take the environment aspects into account while formulating the Policy since safeguarding the environment is a prime responsibility of the government.
Notably, the State Government in the Policy has not put a blanket ban on rat-hole mining which is prevalent in the State.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had directed the State Government to draft a Mining Policy in 2005.