SHILLONG: An elephantine problem is haunting Congress in West Khasi Hills with the opponents taking political mileage out of it.
The move of the Congress-led MUA government to create an elephant reserve in West Khasi Hills was raked up by the non-Congress parties during the campaigns.
“We could not win any seat in the district council elections in West Khasi Hills due to the false propaganda of the Opposition regarding the elephant reserve,” Deputy Chief Minister Rowell Lyngdoh, who hails from Mawkyrwat, South West KhasiHills, recently said.
The matter figured during the campaign to Lok Sabha polls too and Congress tried to explain to people that Government had no intention to take away land belonging to people to create the proposed elephant reserve. The matter was also clarified by the Forest Minister Prestone Tynsong in the recently-concluded Budget session of the Assembly. Another misinformation campaign which Congress had to tackle in parts of the State including West Khasi Hills was regarding the ban on sand mining.
According to Congress, after the ban on sand mining by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the opponents had campaigned against the ruling party by saying that this would affect the livelyhood of people in rural areas.
However, the Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said in the past that the State Government would not put a ban on sand mining by saying that it would dislocate the people who are involved in such activities besides leading to large scale migration of people to urban areas.
