SHILLONG, Sep 17: As the curtain came down on the Autumn Session of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly here on Friday, the ruling and opposition sides were at loggerheads over governance and taking credit for initiating different infrastructural projects in the state during the short duration discussion of the House.
On the floor of the House, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, in his reply, took credit for starting and making different projects like the new Assembly building and Umroi airport functional.
Later outside the Assembly, Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma, has asserted that it was the previous MUA Government which set the ball rolling for the construction of the new Assembly building at New Shillong Township.
Speaking to media persons, Mukul said that the previous government had put an end to all the uncertainty pertaining to the new site of the Assembly building as land stretching out to 80 acres was handed over to the Assembly Secretariat.
Mukul credited the then Speaker, AT Mondal, for lending a drive to the Assembly building project.
Commenting on airports, Sangma recalled that it was hard to acquire land for expansion of the Baljek airport even as he heaped praise on AT Mondal, who, according to him, conducted the exercise of land acquisition between 2010 and 2013. Entire villages were shifted for the expansion of the land and even involved defence land, he added.
The Opposition leader pointed out that till date an ATR aircraft cannot operate from Baljek Airport as the runway is not long enough even as he maintained that it was the previous government which acquired land for expansion of Baljek airport.
