SHILLONG, July 15: The heads of all the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance constituents are scheduled to brainstorm on a plethora of issues plaguing the state on Friday.
The National People’s Party and its minor partners expect the MDA Coordination Committee meeting to yield a positive result.
Under pressure from allies, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Wednesday conceded that the demand for the meeting was “genuine”.
The presidents of all the coalition partners are likely to be in the meeting.
BJP state president Ernest Mawrie confirmed receiving the message to attend the meeting.
“The meeting is from 2 pm on Friday and the issues to be discussed include the interstate boundary, Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit, irregularities in the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited, and the allegations against the Social Welfare department,” he said.
He said they will discuss the issues on the agenda as mentioned by the Chief Minister and that they are happy the wait for the Coordination Committee would be over.
“Any kind of dialogue to hammer out the differences and discuss issues is good,” United Democratic Party general secretary Jemino Mawthoh said.
“Whenever any allegations or serious issues crop up, it is important to iron them out as we are in the government. When we don’t meet, there are all kinds of speculations,” he said.
People’s Democratic Front president and Agriculture Minister Banteidor Lyngdoh said: “It is a good step as he (Chief Minister) has called all the presidents of the coalition partners to discuss several issues.”
He declined to say if the PDF has any specific issues to discuss. “Let us first discuss,” he said.
“Any issue concerning the people – good, bad or ugly – needs to be discussed. It does not look good if we cannot answer the people on important issues as coalition partners,” Nationalist Congress Party chief Saleng Sangma said.
Hill State People’s Democratic Party president KP Pangniang, who was scheduled to visit his constituency, would also be attending the meeting.
The BJP was the first to call a meeting of the MDA constituents. The party’s national vice-president and Meghalaya in-charge, Dr. M. Chuba Ao had requested the Chief Minister to convene the meeting for discussing the demand for a CBI probe into the Saubhagya scheme.
UDP working president Paul Lyngdoh endorsed Dr Ao’s call. The other coalition partners followed.
