By Our Reporter
SHILLONG:The 9th Assembly will be constituted within a month following the verdict after polls, yet construction of a new ‘House’ for the members will still be a distant dream.
Even after the culmination of two Assembly terms, the legislators could not even start the construction of their own ‘House’ after the heritage Assembly building was gutted by fire.
Though there will be the formation of a new Government followed by the constitution of the 9th Assembly within a month, it is uncertain whether the new building will be constructed within next five years as 12 years have passed without any signs of a new House coming up with the authorities dilly dallying on the project.
January 9 was the 12th anniversary of the destruction of the Assembly building at Khyndai Lad (Police Bazar) and there has not been much progress as far as the construction of the new Assembly is concerned even after several years.
The Congress-led Government could not proceed with the construction of the new Assembly at Tara Ghar due to a court case following a PIL. Fund constraints have been another reason for delay.
The Assembly Speaker Charles Pyngrope said that since the matter is pending with the court, the Government has to wait for the verdict. He, however, expressed concern over the undue delay in the construction of Assembly which should have been completed within two years.
An Assembly official admitted that the construction of the Assembly building, which was even projected in the State Budget 2012-13, is in limbo due to legal hurdles.
Soon after the Assembly was gutted by fire on January 9, 2001, much time was wasted in selecting the sites for the construction of the building. For sometime, the Assembly session was held at State Central Library hall and subsequently the Arts and Culture building at Rilbong is temporarily being used as the venue of the Assembly.
A judicial inquiry was conducted to ascertain the reason behind the Assembly fire incident with a cost of Rs 2,87,210. Though the probe report blamed negligence on the part of the Assembly staff which led to the incident, no one was punished.
With the change of speakers and chief ministers, sites for the Assembly building were also changed over the years.
The chosen sites included old Assembly premises, Upper Shillong, Mawdiangdiang and Tara Ghar among others.
In 2010, the GAD had handed over land measuring 6.5 acres at Tara Ghar, the erstwhile official residence of Meghalaya chief ministers, to the Assembly Secretariat.
After the fire incident, the initial plan of the government was to construct the new Assembly in the old site at Khyndai Lad.
During the tenure of ED Marak as the Speaker in 2002 even the construction work was allotted to one C Pala without calling tender and subsequently soil testing was also carried out in the site.
Again in 2004, there was a move on the part of the then chief minister DD Lapang to construct the Assembly in Mawdiangdiang, outskirts of Shillong and a large stretch of area selected for the new Shillong township.
A resolution in the Assembly was taken up and passed against this move to shift the Assembly to Mawdiangdiang supported by both the ruling and the Opposition.
In 2006, after another site was selected, the then Meghalaya Governor MM Jacocb on December 8, 2006 laid the foundation stone for the new Assembly building in Upper Shillong when MM Danggo was the Speaker.
The government spent Rs 33 lakh for laying the foundation stone at Upper Shillong, which was later crticised by the Comptoller and Auditor General of India.
However, in 2008, when the NCP-UDP coalition formed the government, the High Power Committee chaired by the then Speaker Bindo Lanong decided to construct the Assembly again at Khyndai Lad.
This plan was abandoned later and the Congress-led coalition government chose Tara Ghar to construct the new structure despite opposition from several NGOs.
The NGOs opposed the construction of Assembly at Tara Ghar on grounds that the greenery and heritage Assam type buildings will be destroyed once the new Assembly comes up.