SHILLONG, Aug 29: State Congress president Vincent H. Pala has blamed all the coalition partners including the United Democratic Party for the overall failure in law-and-order and the alleged illegalities in Meghalaya.
He was particularly severe on the UDP. “Problems often crop up in the departments that go to the UDP,” he told media persons on Sunday.
“If you ask any trucker, they will inform you that they carry coal from Jaintia Hills to Guwahati easily because there is no checking and nobody stops them as they have already paid for it,” Pala said.
He said each truck is now paying Rs 1.20 lakh to transport coal compared to Rs 60,000 when James Sangma was the Home Minister.
The state Congress chief said that UDP was abusing Sangma when he was the Home Minister just to get the Home department. “Now that they have got it, they are looting the truckers and the law-and-order situation has collapsed,” he added.
Pala also said the UDP, handling the Excise department, is spoiling the youths of the state through home delivery of liquor.
“Now, people can pay online for liquor and they are only making more youths addicted to liquor and drugs when we don’t even have a proper deaddiction and rehabilitation centre in the state,” he said, citing a survey that revealed 68 per cent of people in the state have become alcoholics.
He also slammed the government for coming up with a super bond system to collect taxes.
Pala blamed the government for the recent killing of former HNLC leader Cheristerfield Thangkhiew. “The police only follow orders,” he said, accusing the UDP of trying to wriggle out of the trouble over the killing.
“They don’t want the department now and no one knows who the Home Minister is today,” he added.
Stating that all the coalition partners of the MDA government should take responsibility for the mess they have created, Pala said the smaller parties should have withdrawn from the government if they were really against the illegalities.a
