This assembly session scheduled to be held from February 16-27 is expected to be a fiery one revolving around the illegal coal mining and the death of over 30 labourers owing to a dynamite blast gone wrong. Currently there are only 9 Opposition MLAs in the 60-member Assembly – 5 from the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and 4 from the Voice of Peoples Party (VPP). The VPP has been very vehement in its stance on illegal coal mining after the recent blast at Thangsko in East Jaintia Hills and the loss of 32 lives so far. In fact the VPP Chief Ardent Basaiawmoit had even demanded that Chief Minister Conrad Sangma should step down and take moral responsibility for being unable to put a stop to illegal coal mining despite the repeated mine accidents that have claimed lives since 2018 and even before that but the matter never came to light. Leader of Opposition, Dr Mukul Sangma too has castigated the Government for being in denial about illegal coal mining even while this trade was carried out surreptitiously under the very eyes of the Government. This despite the National Green Tribunal’s directive to that effect since April 2014.
Recently when Meghalaya Congress chief, Vincent Pala was asked for his views on the recent blast that claimed over 30 lives he gave some wishy-washy answer and that is understandable. No MLA from Jaintia Hills can win elections if he/she were to take a firm stance on banning illegal coal mining. Even the VPP while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections had stated that coal mining is a traditional livelihood and that the Party would ensure that the ban was lifted by taking the issue up at the right quarters at the level of the central government and by pushing for scientific mining. No wonder the VPP won with a huge margin in the Lok Sabha elections from Jaintia Hills. The Congress is reduced to a cipher in the State Assembly and has not shown any assertiveness to revive the Party at the state level. Apart from the occasional protests by the Mahila Congress the Party has not shown any inclination to take on the MDA-2 Government with the fervour shown by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in taking on the Modi Government during the ongoing Parliament session. Hence the only Opposition to the MDA-2 Government has to come from the AITC and the VPP. In fact, the two parties should remain committed to peoples’ issues and not fritter away the time of the Assembly in political one-upmanship and thereby allow the Government to get away with blasé explanations on its acts of omission and commission.
There are too many issues that have to be taken up in the Assembly and people look up to the Opposition to take on the present Government which has been lax in data collection on some critical issues affecting the state. Does Meghalaya today have the exact number of people living below the poverty line? Does the state have the number of children that have dropped out of school at various stages of their educational journey? Without the statistics the Government is groping in the dark and is unable to address the most pressing issues afflicting the people of the state. The Opposition therefore must also be held to account by the people that voted them to power.
