TURA: The chief minister is flashing the development card ahead of the crucial Assembly polls in Meghalaya, knowing well that it happens to be his best bet. Mukul Sangma has exuded confidence that the Congress will return to power in the state after the February 27 elections riding the wave of development under his leadership.
“We have set a new benchmark in development in Meghalaya which other states will find hard to compete with,” he said while drumming up support for North Tura Congress MLA Noverfield R Marak during an election meeting at Babadam, 26 km from Tura town on Wednesday evening.
The chief minister, who landed at Babadam village on a chartered chopper, informed the waiting crowd of a slew of development projects initiated by his government.
“In 2013, the people of the state voted for a Congress government. It was a record because for the first time in the state’s history the regional parties were not required in the process of government formation. Despite challenges we were able to fulfill the promises made to the people,” he asserted.
“From PWD roads to locality roads in towns and villages, we accorded each and every one top priority,” said Sangma while highlighting road projects including the Shillong-Nongstoin-Tura highway, border roads from Ampati-Mahendraganj connecting Dalu, the Shillong-Mawkyrwat-Ranikor to Baghmara road, Athiabari-Nongstoin road and the Shillong-Balat road, among others.
He also spoke of the government’s efforts to set up a medical college in Tura and the Technological College for Architecture and Urban Planning near Tura, which will be the first-of-its-kind in the entire North-East.
The chief minister, however, was not taciturn when it came to attacking the opposition parties. He accused them of scuttling the Congress’s development projects whenever governments changed in the state.
“Every time we have initiated development projects the succeeding government has managed to scuttle them. Every project cannot be completed in five years. But there has to be a continuity which, unfortunately, is broken when other parties take over the reins of government,” said Sangma.
As an example he cited the Ganol hydel project which, he said, was delayed by the previous UDP-NCP-HSPDP government in the state after the 2008 state elections. Incidentally, the project was initiated by the Congress.
Responding to the verbal barbs flung at him by opposition leaders who accused him of running a foundation stone manufacturing factory due to the several foundation stone laying ceremonies that the CM attended before the announcement of elections in the state, the chief minister said, “If I run a foundation stone factory then my opponents must surely run a memorandum manufacturing industry because they are always the first to rush to New Delhi to submit a memorandum on every issue which is then photographed and posted on social media.”
Taking potshots at his bête noire, Tura MP Conrad K Sangma, the chief minister accused the NPP national president of possessing an uncanny ability of getting his facts wrong all the time.
“During a recent election rally in Phulbari, the NPP president attacked the Congress over the poor condition of the AMPT road. He said he would demand from the central government a special road project to upgrade it to a national highway. He does not know that the sanction for the road project has already been cleared by my government. He should do his homework,” said Mukul going hammer and tongs against Conrad.
The chief minister claimed that the delay in initiating work on the Agia-Medhipara-Phulbari-Tikrikilla road was due to the large-scale funding required for the project.
He targeted the central government for changing the rules that led to the cancellation of the thermal power plant that would have been run by NEEPCO at Naringre in the East Garo Hills as well as for shifting the Tura medical college from the original spot at Jewilgre to Doldigre.
“My opponents always cancel projects initiated by me believing that those would benefit no one but me. But the projects are for the people of the state. Politics should not be come in the way of the state’s development, but it is exactly what the opposition leaders are trying to do,” he alleged.
