By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 9: Battered and bruised by a series of allegations of misgovernance and corruption and the constant attacks on the government by the opposition and some parties which are allies of the NPP in the MDA government, Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma on Thursday said it is his duty to take full responsibility of whatever happens in his government.
He told reporters he does not look at himself as NPP CM but the CM of the state. He said he heads the government as the CM and the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance as its chairman.
He was reacting to the observation of the Opposition that the non-NPP constituents in the MDA were equally responsible for all the ills in the coalition but do not accept their responsibilities and leave matters to his party, NPP.
“It is my responsibility to ensure that whatever problems come up, we resolve them. They may not be issues directly under the department I am handling but as the head of the government, I am responsible for all that happens,” Sangma said.
Stating that it is natural to have divergent views in a coalition, he said, “We all know we have to work with understanding. Sometimes, there could be differences but we need to resolve them,” he added.
On the relationship with the BJP, Sangma avoided a direct reply by stating that if there are issues, they should be resolved through dialogues. But the problem arises when one cannot sit together and resolve the issues, he added.
Stating that the leaders of the political parties exhibited maturity when the coalition faced challenges, he said, “Maybe, from the BJP’s point of view, it is a fact that we are working closely with the NDA Government at the centre. We have always got a very positive response from them when it comes to issues concerning the state, especially development agenda.”
Assembly Deputy Speaker Timothy D Shira had recently said the NPP is tolerating the BJP because of the rapport with the Centre. Sangma said it was Shira’s personal statement. “It is not about tolerating but working together and trying to iron out differences whenever there is any,” he said.
Spadework for phase-II of border talks begins
The state government has started its preparations on the ground for another round of boundary talks with Assam on the remaining six areas of differences. Discussions have been already held on the six other areas, leading to the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
“We are doing our best. We have started doing our homework as there is a lot of work that needs to be done,” Sangma said.
He said a lot of documentation and mapping have to be done and one cannot just look at the old map and go by it.
“We realised that in the last report submitted in 2011, there were a lot of concerns. Some areas were not very clear on the map, so it requires a lot of drone-mapping. As such, a lot of preparations are going on,” the CM said.
Stating that it is not a simple task, he said, “For meeting’s sake, we can always meet but I think before we meet, it is important that we do our planning and homework properly, prepare the documentation and be ready. That is what the government is doing.”
Talking about the recent incident at Gizang Salbari, a disputed village where the headman and five other village leaders were arrested by the Assam Police on the charge of destroying property, he said it is not really a border dispute but a complicated case. He said the local MDC moved for bail.
Ad hoc teachers
The CM said the issue of the ad hoc teachers was taken up in the Cabinet for a discussion but no decision was made.
“The problem with the ad hoc teachers’ issue is that we will be requiring hundreds of crores of rupees to make this happen and the reason it has to be placed before the Cabinet is that while we do that, we will have to cut the budget of some other department and the Minister concerned has to be aware of it,” Sangma said.
He said detailed discussions are required since the money has to come from somewhere.
“We need to ensure that provisions given to others are maintained and balanced,” he said, adding if it were a matter of some crores of rupees, the government could have easily gone ahead.