By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: UDP leader Paul Lyngdoh has accused the previous MUA government of failing miserably to solve the issue of Punjabi Lane.
“We all know that a certain political party was gaining mileage from the vote bank in this colony. The will was lacking and hopefully this government will not lack the will,” Lyngdoh told reporters. He added that the problem, which is a complex one, has been allowed to go on for too long and the office of the Syiem of Mylliem has been largely responsible for indiscriminate and random issuance of permits and lease despite it being a market area.
Lyngdoh recalled that when he was the urban affairs minister, they made a roster of employees of the Shillong Municipal Board and found that almost three-fourth of the residents of the colony were not staff and were engaged in other professions. According to Lyngdoh, during their government, they had submitted a proposal to construct a flyover from Raps Mansion till Punjabi Lane and the matter was taken up with the then Union Defence Minister, AK Anthony, for parting with their land. But the Ministry asked for land in return of land.
Another project was for the construction of multi-level parking facility in the area and even a DPR was prepared but a team from the National Commission for Scheduled Caste asked the state government not to go ahead with the project.
The UDP leader said the then Union DoNER minister PR Kyndiah had written to the then Chief Minister of Meghalaya saying residents were subjected to pressure because of the proposal for the parking lot.
When asked if the current government has failed to contain the situation, Lyngdoh said the government should be given some time to address the issues adequately even as he added that a delegation of UDP youth wing will meet the chief minister on Monday.
Congress leader and former urban affairs minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said there was a need to rise above politics and stop blaming each other.
“We must get together in one page and make one voice to sort out the issues,” he said. She said she was also privy to the previous attempts of the all the governments in the state who have tried to sort out the matter.
Maintaining that law should not be taken into the hands, Lyngdoh reminded that almost all the political parties in the state were at one point of time were the partner in the previous Governments She also said that the problem of land in Punjabi line dates back to the state formation days and even the parties of that generation had made their best efforts to solve the issue but it could not be solved since it is a difficult issues.
