SHILLONG: UDP working president Paul Lyngdoh on Friday slammed the State government for indulging in politicking over the appointment of the State DGP, saying that if party politicking overtakes governance then everything becomes a casualty.
“The chief minister is not cooperating with the KHADC CEM and the Centre is not cooperating with him,” Lyngdoh said, while making a veiled reference to the differences between Mukul Sangma and P.N. Syiem.
Alleging that the State government is favouring one officer at the cost of other aspiring officers, he said police officers in Meghalaya have been subjected to politicking.
“It is bad for a state when the government classifies officers as favourite or not favourite,” Lyngdoh stated.
Former Deputy Chief Minister and UDP leader, Bindo M. Lanong, recalled that there was hue and cry in 2011 when the tenure of a technical official in the Sports department was extended in view of some upcoming projects.
“There should be extension only in extraordinary cases and the duration should be for one or two months at the maximum,” Lanong said.
Stating that extension of services goes against the promotion of line officers, Lanong said extension of any officer for long is injustice to other officers.
He slammed the State government for turning a blind eye to its own activities saying they have no ground to protest against the Centre for not extending the services of DGP Rajiv Mehta since the State government was also ignoring appointment of nominated member in KHADC and nomination of Conrad Sangma in the GHADC.
“Why are they protesting now when they were doing the same thing?” he questioned.
NPP state president W.R. Kharlukhi said the Centre applied the same yardstick for the chief minister which he had applied for the autonomous district councils.
He also said there is no justification in extending the services of a person who is set to retire.
It may be mentioned that the State government has been pushing for extension of services of DGP Rajiv Mehta who retired on Thursday. S.K. Jain has been named acting DGP in the interim.
