SHILLONG, Feb 13: Congress on Monday released a 10-point ‘chargesheet’ against the outgoing MDA coalition implicating NPP and UDP — the two major constituents of the ruling conglomerate.
The ‘chargesheet’ essentially includes a litany of allegations of scams and corruption in high places that popped up in the media during last five years.
The ‘chargesheet’ titled “The Grand Meghalaya Loot” includes the infamous collapse of the Assembly dome on May 22 last year, which the Congress termed as a “case of ransom”.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, AICC Media and Publicity Department Chairman, Pawan Khera said it was a brazen display of abuse of power and in complete disregard of all law and propriety that two bidders — M/s Badri Rai and M/s Shiva Enterprise — who were disqualified from participating in the tender process, were given the subcontract by Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Limited after they won the bid to construct the Assembly complex.
“The scam doesn’t stop here. After the dome collapsed, an RTI query revealed that there was a further inflation from the original cost and the project is now costing Rs 177.79 crore out of which an amount of Rs 160.30 crore as already been released/paid to the contractor. Now how can the department release 90% of the payment when work for only 65-70% has been completed unless there is a quid pro quo?” he questioned.
According to Congress, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had publicly stated that the Assembly dome collapsed due to its “heavy weight”.
“That is a very wrong description. The people of Meghalaya know that the dome collapsed due to ‘heavy corruption’,” Khera said.
The second case in the ‘chargesheet’ is the alleged “Covid scam”. The party recalled that Health Minister James PK Sangma had replied in the Assembly during the last session in September 2022 that Rs 816 crore was spent by the government for 96,785 confirmed Covid cases and 1,624 Covid deaths.
“Now compare this with Manipur which had more Covid cases (1.4 lakh) and deaths (2,149) than Meghalaya and spent an amount of just over Rs 100 crore. So, Meghalaya’s expenditure for lesser number of Covid cases and deaths was more than eight times than that of Manipur,” Khera said.
The Congress also pointed out that according to an RTI query, Rs 119.73 crore was released by the Centre for Covid relief but the Health Minister (James Sangma) announced in the Assembly that the Centre has only sanctioned Rs 76 crore and thus, there is a discrepancy of Rs 43.73 crore between the state and Centre’s figures.
The third charge against the MDA referred to the “MUDA scam”. As per the Congress, a sum of Rs 500 crore was given to the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) but till now no utilization certificate has been submitted and no one knows how the money was spent. There is no visible development of the city, the Congress alleged.
“Similarly, the proposed Mega Shopping Complex on the Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) premises in Jail Road is also under the scanner. The government intends to spend more than Rs 200 crore in a plot of land measuring less than 50,000 sq. ft. This project also stinks of corruption and is a scam. The rates of construction are much higher as compared to the existing rates to construct a building,” the party said.
Continuing its attack on the illegal mining and transportation of coal, Khera said that the Meghalaya High Court in 2022 had appointed Justice BP Katakey, a retired judge of the Gauhati High Court, to ascertain whether the state government has cracked down on illegal coal mining as directed by the Supreme Court and the NGT.
Quoting the report of Justice Katakey, the Congress said that 13 lakh metric tonnes of coal was illegally mined, transported and discovered which the state sought to pass off as coal mined prior to the imposition of the ban.
“This proves the Congress party’s charge, that there has been a huge scam in illegal mining and transportation of coal to the tune of hundreds of crores and this ill-gotten money is being used by NPP and all the constituent partners of MDA, to fund their luxurious campaigns and ‘purchase’ MLAs of other parties. According to our calculations, the loss to the state exchequer from the illegal mining and transportation of coal is an estimated at Rs 650 crore. Just imagine how many welfare schemes could have been funded from this money,” the Congress added.
The party also pointed out that the MDA government was involved in the “Saubhagya scam”, and said that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its 2021 audit report had exposed a scam of Rs 149 crore in the Power department during implementation of the Centre’s flagship programme “Saubhagya”.
The party also charged the MDA government over the “Rice scam”, the “Excise/Bond Cartelization scam”, “Casino scam” and even “Friends & Family – Government Contracts” scam.
“It is no secret that two ministers in the MDA government – Sniawbhalang Dhar and his nephew Dasakhiatbha Lamare – come from a family with interests in construction and transport. Dhar Construction Company, their family-owned company, has monopoly over all road construction and infrastructure projects in Meghalaya, especially Khasi-Jaintia Hills and Ri Bhoi,” the Congress leader said, while adding that the work for construction of almost all projects in Meghalaya are awarded to this firm and both the uncle and nephew being ministers in the MDA government make it a classic case of nepotism, favouritism and an obvious conflict of interest.
Lastly, the AICC leader slammed the MDA government over the mismanagement in procurement of vehicles and misuse of fuel coupons and referred to it in the chargesheet as “Police Vehicle Purchase scam”.
