SHILLONG, March 28: VPP president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit on Tuesday took a dig at Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma for his statement that anyone aggrieved by the implementation of the roster system can approach the High Court of Meghalaya. “It looks like the Chief Minister is not aware of his own role. The domain of policy or law-making lies with the legislature. The implementation part lies with the executive. The job of the judiciary is to ensure that the implementation of the law is in accordance with the provision of the Constitution,” Basaiawmoit said.
He said the CM, as a responsible leader, must keep in mind the interests of all sections of people. This should be the standard approach of a responsible leader, he added.
The VPP president said the option to approach the court should be the last resort.
“We will try to create more pressure on the government by getting the support of the people. We hope the government will one day understand the gravity of the issue and call us for a discussion to work out a better policy,” he said.
Basaiawmoit said once the VPP gets the support of people, it will make the government think twice. “We have to take this issue to the street since the government is too adamant. We are asking it to review and renew the policy since there are many lacunae in this policy,” the VPP president said, adding the government should take it positively.
“We want to ensure that this policy is fair to everyone. We understand that we cannot take up this issue recklessly since we do not want to vitiate the atmosphere among the different communities,” he said.
He expressed his gratitude to the CM for recognizing his absence while replying to the debate on the budget in the Assembly. He said the CM fails to recognize the absence of his own minister.
“We are given 10 minutes in the budget discussion and 10 minutes in the debate on the Governor’s address. I think it is not fair to expect us to remain in one place for more than three hours,” Basaiawmoit said.
The CM on Monday gave a three-hour and seventeen-minute-long reply in the Assembly, which is one of the longest speeches, prompting many MLAs of the opposition parties to leave the House before the completion of proceedings.
During his speech, he tried to answer almost all queries raised by the legislators.
“I noted down all the points raised by the members during the debate. I stood here for more than three hours to reply because we have a commitment to 38 lakh people of the state,” Sangma said.
“It was, however, sad that most MLAs of the Opposition were not present when I was replying to their questions,” he said.
VPP legislators, who were not in the House, were Basaiawmoit, Brightstarwell Marbaniang and Heaving Stone Kharpran. Mukul Sangma (TMC) and Saleng Sangma (Congress) also did not stay till the end.
The Opposition MLAs, who were present till the end, were Celestine Lyngdoh, Gabriel Wahlang, Charles Marngar (all from Congress), Adelbert Nongrum (VPP) and Charles Pyngrope (TMC).
