Mizo minister’s resignation accepted

Aizawl:The resignation of Mizoram’s Labour Minister Lalrinmawia Ralte, who has been blamed for sending 32 students from the state to a fake institute in Kolkata and misusing money, has been accepted by Governor Nirbhay Sharma, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla said on Tuesday.
Ralte’s resignation, which had been submitted on February 15, was accepted as he had pleaded that there should be fair and impartial inquiry into the allegations against his department, the chief minister told newsmen here.
Ralte and Mizoram Youth Commission(MYC) chairman T. Sangkunga were “compelled” to resign as some government officials had misguided them, he said.
The minister’s portfolios – employment and industrial training, environment, forests and climate change, soil and water conservation and cooperation besides labour, would now be held by him, Thanhawla added.
The minister had tendered his resignation over controversy surrounding sending of 32 Mizo students to Nalanda Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Kolkata, which was reportedly declared a fake institution.
Thanhawla had already accepted the resignation of Sangkunga as chairman of the MYC. Ralte had said in his letter that the opposition parties were “gunning” for his resignation and were also trying to blame the chief minister in the fiasco.
Opposition parties held Ralte, who was also chairman of Mizoram Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (MBOCWWB) and T Sangkunga, Mizoram Youth Commission (MYC) chairman responsible for the plight of the Mizo students who had been sent by the state government to the eastern metropolis to study Bachelor of Hotel Management.
They alleged that the two were responsible for sending the students to a fake institution and misusing over Rs 128 lakh provided by MBOCWWB.
The state government had recently suspended two officials – Rotlunga, the former director of labour and employment and information technology and former superintendent of MYC recently.
But the opposition parties stuck to their demand for resignation of the two Congress legislators. (PTI)