SHILLONG, Jan 7: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Friday said some local leaders instigated Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs John Barla to criticise the state government over the inauguration of the PA Sangma stadium.
Barla had paid a visit to the recently-inaugurated stadium in Tura and tore into Sangma’s NPP-led MDA government for giving the Centre’s contribution to the project the short shrift and inaugurating the stadium despite the structure remaining incomplete.
Reacting to the Union minister’s comment, Sangma on Saturday said there are two parts of the project – an indoor stadium and an outdoor football stadium. He said it would have been inappropriate for the state government to invite Barla when one part of the stadium was incomplete.
The CM said since the football stadium was already open, the government inaugurated it, as keeping it without inauguration would have spoilt it.
“We are in a federal structure where both state and central government work together. It is unfortunate that the development work for the betterment of the people is being questioned,” he lamented.
Without taking any names, Sangma said local leaders had instigated the Union minister to make such a statement.
The project entailed a cost of over Rs 127 crore, with 90% of the funding coming from the Centre. It was funded by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
Meanwhile, NPP supremo Conrad Sangma also stated that the litany of ‘unproven’ allegations against the party does not deter them from doing what is right for the people.
“…when we know we are doing the right thing and our conscience is clear and what we are doing is for the best interest of the people and the state, nothing deters us,” Conrad said.
Emphasising on positive mindset as a mandatory trait to deal with challenges, he said, “This is why in the last five years, the NPP-led MDA has been able to stably provide a government and deliver on a large number of promises that we had made”.
Defending the NPP which has been surrounded by dissent on several occasions, the CM said that running a coalition government comprising six political parties is not an easy task, and as such is difficult to carry everybody along sometimes.
“We have six political parties as coalition partners. And as we know, Meghalaya has a history of coalition politics and it is never easy because all political parties and their leaders will have their own interests, own stand and areas of concern as well as the way of handling situations, and hence for the government to carry everybody along sometimes it is not the easiest thing,” the NPP national president said.
The CM’s statement assumes significance as it comes at a time when many coalition partners are singling out the NPP in regard with all the allegations and misgovernance, despite being a part of the MDA coalition government.
