SHILLONG, Dec 7: The Nongthymmai Block Congress Committee (NBCC) has cast aspersions on UDP leader and former MLA of Nongthymmai, Jemino Mawthoh, for taking credit and saying that it was because of his efforts the Nongrah Water Supply Scheme (Phase-1) was approved in 2017.
“He (Mawthoh) needs to get his facts right. It was the Congress MLA from Nongthymmai, Charles Pyngrope, who was the man behind this water supply scheme at Nongrah locality. In fact, he (Pyngrope), during his tenure as the Speaker of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly in 2012, had proposed a water supply scheme to cater to the four localities including Nongrah, Mawlynrei, Sohryngkham and Umpling,” NBCC president, Bawan Khyriem, told reporters here.
According to him, the then government under the Chief Ministership of Dr. Mukul Sangma could not approve the water supply scheme for the four localities since it involved a huge amount of funds.
Khyriem further claimed that Mukul had sanctioned an amount of Rs 5.92 crore in March 2017 for the Nongrah Water Supply Scheme (Phase-1) in respect to Pyngrope, who was a senior Congress leader at that time.
“The main objective of this water supply scheme was to provide interim relief for the people of Nongrah. As you are aware that Nongrah is also one of the localities which will be covered under the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme Phase III,” he added.
Earlier, Mawthoh, while taking to reporters after inspecting the site of the water supply scheme at Nongrah on December 4, had said, “Before 2013, Charles (Pyngrope) was the MLA for ten years but nothing came out of it…when I became the MLA, I pursued and the PHE finally approved the scheme on March 31, 2017”.
He said that this was also possible with cooperation from the Dorbar Shnong and four other individuals who donated the land.
Khyriem questioned the visit of PHE Minister Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar and Mawthoh for not consulting the local MLA while visiting the site at Nongrah. “We are not against the Minister visiting the project site. But we would like to know why the local MLA was bypassed. This is totally against the protocol,” Khyriem said.
“If he (Mawthoh) had really worked during his tenure as an MLA, then why did he garner less votes from Nongrah village in 2018,” Khyriem said.
He said that the Congress MLA has allocated funds for the development of Nongrah through the MLA Scheme, while adding that the funds awarded to Nongrah during the past three years include Rs 4.90 lakh in 2018-19, Rs 5.40 lakh in 2019-20 and Rs 21.77 lakh as advance payment in 2020-21 as the government is facing financial crisis.