SHILLONG, Feb 12: NPP candidate from Jowai, Wailadmiki Shylla on Sunday blamed former chief minister, Mukul Sangma for failing to respond and adhere to the series of directions from the National Green Tribunal which ultimately led to the ban on coal mining in the state in 2014.
Addressing newspersons in Jowai, Shylla said, “In 2014, the NGT wrote to the then state government expressing their concerns over coal mining but the then chief minister (Mukul Sangma) did not respond. Several reminders were sent but he failed to act and ultimately the ban was imposed.”
According to Shylla, the autonomous district councils depend largely on the royalty from coal and following the ban, the councils were embroiled in financial crisis.
Dismissing allegations that employees of the district councils were not getting their salary because of the MDA government, Shylla said it was only the NPP-led government that followed up on the matter resulting in the authorities allowing scientific mining.
Asserting that scientific coal mining is the only option that will benefit people of the region in the long run, he affirmed that there would be no impact on environment due to scientific mining.
Dismissing the anti-incumbency factor, Shylla said the MDA government performed much better than the previous government despite the challenges it faced in terms of infrastructure and policy making.
The sitting MLA of Jowai, who is facing a stiff challenge from TMC’s Awhai Andrew Shullai and UDP’s Moonlight Pariat, admitted that “fake promises” like WE Card and MYE Card had initially impacted his prospect, but people are now realizing that those are nothing but false promises.
He ruled out the BJP’s challenge in Jowai but said the Congress could have some impact since the party had represented the constituency for a long time.
