NONGSTOIN, Feb 21: Days after members of a survey team, who were assigned to examine the soil where Eklavya Model Residential School is to be constructed, were allegedly assaulted, Nongstoin MLA Macmillan Byrsat on Sunday urged the citizenry to abstain themselves from disseminating misinformation as well as researching before sounding the false alarm.
The incident took place on February 13 at Sohparu when unknown miscreants around 11 pm visited the location where the school is being constructed and perpetrated the assault, alleging that the survey team was present there with an intention of mining minerals in the area.
It was subsequent to this assault, one Ebristina Kharbani, the landowner who had donated the land to the state government for the construction of the school, filed a police complaint.
Whilst the Superintendent of Police has assured of nabbing the perpetrators, the members of the survey team are still not able to identify the assailants.
Amid the squabbles on social media with regard to the issue, Byrsat, during a press conference on Sunday, cleared air on the matter, saying that the alleged mining of minerals was a hoax and that the survey team was only assigned to test the soil ahead of the construction of the school.
He added that since the project has been funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the testing of the soil was compulsory prior to constructing the school building.
The MLA maintained that experts not only examine soil before constructing houses or buildings but also before constructing bridges.
Stating that a group of people, who want to stall the project, deliberately misled people, the MLA cautioned that if such assaults keep taking place, all development projects in the constituency will be stalled, thereby affecting the public.
“I am happy to have people criticise me, for that is the spirit and the beauty of democracy. But it saddens me to see developmental projects getting stalled,” he bemoaned.
The MLA also called upon every individual from Nongstoin to “dig deeper” before making any assumptions.
He urged people, who want to get the first-hand details of the Eklavya project, to visit the Sub-Registrar at Deputy Commissioner’s office in Nongstoin.
Seeking cooperation from the locals for smooth functioning of development projects, the MLA informed about other Centre-funded projects such as Nongstoin-Maweit road, Rambrai-Chaiyagoan-Guwahati road.
