SHILLONG: The Congress Legislature Party which met here on Wednesday asked Meghalaya government to stop illegal coal mining taking place in the state.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma said that the party would continue to draw the attention of the state government to ensure that illegality coal mining is not allowed even as he added that when illegality was allowed, bad things would prevail for the state and tarnish the image of the state,
“Our state should not be seen as a state where illegalities can happen and people who commit illegal things go scot free,” Sangma said while adding the government cannot be complacent and on denial mode over the issue of illegal coal mining in the state
“ Lack of commitment and their incompetence is not acceptable to us. The government must respond to the situation and prove their worth,” he said
The CLP also discussed about the recent attack on CSWO President, Agnes Kharshiing and her colleague, Amita Sangma in East Jaintia and CLP questioned if all the actions taken after the incident indicated seriousness on the part of the authorities to go after the culprits or are they allowing criminals to go scot free or to destroy the evidence.
Asserting that the CLP will take up the matter with the government and ensure that criminals don’t go scot free, the former Chief Minister said that law must prevails or else the situation would embolden the criminals
“ We don’t want our state to be known as a place where evils rule and good gets defected,” he said adding that the situation in the state reflects their ( Government’s ) tendency to align themselves with the criminals.
When asked if he supported the idea of an independent inquiry into the entire matter, Sangma said that when the instances were indicating of something happening in coal mine areas, it called for a serious effort on the part of the government to look at available measures and respond to the situation