SHILLONG, Nov 19: A day after the Opposition Congress raised its voice on alleged corruption in the Power department to the tune of Rs 371 crore, the ruling NPP has hit back saying the allegations were unfounded since the government had systematically answered all queries of the Opposition during the recent Assembly session.
“It seems to us that the Opposition Congress is yet to digest the fact that they lost the no-confidence motion on which they had so heavily banked. The Congress has reached a record low in its attempt to stay relevant in state politics without thinking of the welfare of the people of the state,” NPP Spokesperson, Marcuise Marak said today.
Marak recalled that during the Assembly session, Congress MLA, George B. Lyngdoh had raised the issue of non-functional electric meters in rural areas to which Power Minister, James Sangma had stated that in order to solve this issue, the government is looking to improve the billing efficiency in the state through introduction of smart meters.
“To be clear, this issue is not recent and has persisted for a long time now. We had questioned the Congress when they were in power. However, they never responded to our questions nor did they look to find solutions. It is hypocritical of them to bring this issue up now when they themselves are responsible for the mess,” Marak said in a statement.
Marak found it ironical that Congress MLA, Zenith Sangma had questioned the state government on the Ganol hydro project which the then Congress government had initiated by promising uninterrupted power supply to the people, but they never kept track of the project despite promising to complete it by February, 2018.
“We would like to disregard any questions raised by the Congress in this matter, since most of their statements are based on ill-information,” he said.
On the Saubhagya Scheme, Marak said that despite the government repeatedly issuing all necessary clarifications to the Congress, the party continues to beat the drum of corruption.
“To be clear, the Congress in its term did not even try to bring this scheme to the people of Meghalaya, despite knowing that such a scheme would be beneficial to all the people, especially the economically vulnerable section,” Marak stated.
