War of words over Baljek, remarks on Roy

SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Legislative Assembly on Thursday witnessed heated arguments involving Daddengre MLA James Sangma, Government chief whip RV Lyngdoh and District Council Affairs Minister Prestone Tynsong on two occasions.
The first round of altercation started when Lyngdoh, during the discussion on the no-confidence motion, made a reference to the Baljek Airport that has remained non-functional since its inauguration in 2008.
This irked Sangma who said it was not right for the minister to refer to former President Pratibha Patil, who had inaugurated the airport, and demanded that the word should be expunged.
Later, taunts from both the treasury and the opposition benches continued over the non-payment of salaries to GHADC employees.
In the second instance, Tynsong and Sangma got into a war of words when the former claimed that Leader of Opposition Donkupar Roy, who was the Chief Minister of the State in 2008, had refused to help him in certain issues of the members of Block Development Committee since he was in the Opposition. Roy said he was not aware of such incident.
However, Sangma said as per the rules, members of the Assembly should not make personal attack on each other. He even asked Tynsong to substantiate his claims and demanded that the word be expunged from the proceedings. Later, the Speaker intervened and said the word would be expunged.
Earlier, reacting to certain statements made by opposition leaders on the infighting within the Congress, Tynsong said, “If I fight with the chief minister, do you (the Opposition) have a problem? He is my chief minister and I am his minister.”