Govt failed to fulfil poll promise: Zenith

SHILLONG, March 9: The Opposition Congress on Tuesday slammed the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government for failing to keep its election promise of lifting the NGT ban on coal mining within six months of coming to power.
“Prior to the election, they had promised that the ban on coal mining will be lifted within 180 days. It is already 1,100 days since the MDA came to power on March 6, 2018 but the promise is yet to be fulfilled,” the Rangsakona MLA said while moving a pending motion in the Assembly.
Criticising MDA for the deteriorating law and order situation, Sangma said that there is a fear psychosis in the minds of the people.
Coming down heavily against the government on the recent attack on migrant labourers at Umoid in South West Khasi Hills district, Zenith wondered how the state will grow if such is the situation.
Referring to the Harijan Colony incident, the Congress MLA said that a petty incident which had occurred on May 31, 2018 flared up due to the government’s failure.
“It has never happened in the history of the state where curfew was imposed for 80 days for such a small incident,” Sangma stated.
He recalled that an NPP leader was identified as the prime accused in the brutal attack on two social activists in Jaintia Hills.
Sangma also blamed intelligence failure for the incident at Ichamati. “There was no police deployment even after knowing that a pressure group was holding a meeting to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act,” he said.
Zenith further questioned how citizens would feel safe when men in uniform are assaulted inside police stations.
Referring to the incident at Umiam police station, Sangma said, “These kinds of incident will destroy the morale of the police force.”