From Saurav Borah
DALU: Union home minister Amit Shah addressed a public meeting at this constituency in West Garo Hills along the India-Bangladesh border on Friday afternoon and promised an inquiry by a retired Supreme Court judge into the graft charges against the incumbent government if the BJP is voted to power in Meghalaya.
Slamming the past governments for “corruption” in Meghalaya, Shah said despite the Sangmas, Mukul and Conrad, leading the government in the past tenures, the state has not seen any development.
“In Meghalaya, the Sangmas have ruled the state. But there has been no development. So what did they do all these years? Time to free the state from corruption so that the money meant sent under central schemes reach the poor people,” he said.
Referring to the development in neighbouring Assam over the past seven years under BJP, Shah said that such progress in that state has been achieved owing to central schemes.
“Modi ji has sanctioned schemes for Meghalaya but the Sangma government had blocked them. Scheme money from the Centre has come to the state over the years but has not reached the beneficiaries owing to corruption. So, if the BJP is voted to power in Meghalaya, the first thing we will do is to institute a probe under a retired judge of the Supreme Court,” the home minister said.
Taking a dig at the NPP government, Shah compared the incumbent government in Meghalaya to a “damaged transformer” which “needed to be replaced with a new one.”
“So, it’s time to change the government and vote for BJP. Then only the schemes will reach the people. Poor people will get the right amount of rice along with dal, oil and sugar. They will get homes and toilets, free health facilities and LPG cylinders,” he assured.
Shah further promised that jobs would be given to the unemployed in a transparent manner. “Do you get government jobs in Meghalaya without giving bribe?, he asked, while adding that in Assam, Manipur and Tripura, government jobs have been given in a transparent way.
“Besides, the road work from national highways to the interior areas has remained shoddy in the state because of corruption which has to be weeded out,” he said.
“The Sangmas have all these years been voted to power by the people of Garo Hills but have they done anything for the people of this region,” he further asked.
Shah had on Thursday addressed a rally in Tura and termed Meghalaya as one of the most corrupt states in the country.
Earlier on Friday, he addressed a public meeting in Garobadha.
Notably, this is the first time that a Union home minister had stayed overnight in Garo Hills.
The home minister also took potshots at the Trinamool Congress and former Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma, saying that if the party from Bengal is at the helm, infiltrators from Bangladesh, the border of which is just a couple of kilometres from Dalu, will enter the state.
On the performance in the last Assembly election, he said that the BJP had lost by a few hundred votes last time. “So this time, vote for the BJP candidate (from Dalu) Akki Sangma,” he said.
In regard to education, Shah said that if the BJP comes to power it will ensure that primary and secondary school students are taught in the local language.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, during his interactive speech, said that it was time the people of Meghalaya elected a people’s leader. “For five years, the candidates don’t come to meet people. They come only before an election…but BJP will meet people before and after an election,” he said.
“All these years, the governance was all from the Sangma families. The leaders are hardly accessible to the people nor are the schemes for the poor. There is no widow pension, old age pension or good roads,” Sarma said.
The Assam chief minister further said that if the BJP was voted to power, the people of Dalu would be able to avail all schemes, including a scheme like the one (Orunodoi) implemented in Assam.