Mukul ignorant of coal issue: NPP

SHILLONG: NPP state president WR Kharlukhi on Thursday hit back at opposition leader Mukul Sangma for terming the MDA government’s claims about coal mining as “lies”.
Sangma had said he would have to find a university for the NPP-led MDA government that can confer it with an honorary degree of “Master of Lies”.
Reacting to this, Kharlukhi said, “The first doctorate from the ‘university of lies’ will be Dr Mukul Sangma himself.”
The NPP leader alleged that Sangma had no knowledge about the coal mining issue and he did not do anything to lift the ban on coal mining and “instead cheated the people of Meghalaya”.
Reiterating that in-depth study should be made on the issue of coal mining, Kharlukhi said the MDA government has already started working on the mining policy.
“NGT has not banned coal mining but all it is saying is we need to check pollution from coal mining and a mining policy is expected to satisfy the NGT,” he added.
According to Kharlukhi, the previous Congress-led MUA government did not follow up the issue of lifting the ban on coal mining and they should have had put pressure on the Centre.
He accused the Congress of politicising the issue of coal mining in Meghalaya as well as other important issues in the country”.