SHILLONG: With the government fighting a grim battle against COVID infection, Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma has deprecated the Opposition’s tendency to score brownie points for political reasons.
In a statement issued here on Monday, Sangma urged the opposition to avoid bringing politics into the prevailing pandemic situation in the state. Instead, he advised them to write to him if they had any constructive suggestion.
The statement came in repudiation of the accusation levelled by the opposition Congress against the state government for not handling the COVID situation properly.
The chief minister countered the charge saying that the government had been very transparent in what they had done as far as containing the pandemic was concerned.
He recalled that in the three meetings convened by the Speaker of the Assembly, along with the Opposition, a lot of discussions took place and in all these meetings different members of the Congress were present and they had expressed satisfaction on how things had been negotiated by the government.
Conceding that it was a complicated situation and nothing could be perfect, the chief minister said that the steps taken by the government from day one had been appreciated time and again by the opposition MLAs as well.
Wondering as to why such a statement from the Congress had come out at such a late stage, he said the Congress had ample scope to express their concerns at the consultative meetings but “they said something else there and are stating something else outside”.
Refusing to react further, he said that in the meeting the Opposition had a positive response and made positive suggestions which the government had been taking from everybody.
The chief minister made it clear that if there are issues, the state government was open for suggestions from the Opposition.