Tura, March 27: The All India Trinamool Congress has accused the Conrad Sangma led government of bulldozing its way against opposition to various contentious issues plaguing the state and former chief minister Mukul Sangma said that his party won’t remain mute spectators and would raise the issues before the centre and the state.
Refusing to put to rest the issue of the Citizenship Amendment Act, despite Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma categorically stating that all 6th Schedule areas in the country and north east- including Meghalaya are exempted from its purview, Mukul Sangma has warned that the impact from its implementation will be bearing on the demographic structure of the country in the years to come.
Giving his side of the narrative, he said that once a person is given citizenship in any of the states where CAA is applicable, that person cannot be stopped from entering 6th Schedule areas.
The former chief minister and All India Trinamool Congress leader made this remark on Wednesday afternoon while addressing the media outside the office of the Returning Officer after younger brother and Trinamool candidate Zenith M Sangma filed his nomination to contest the Tura Lok Sabha seat.
“The battle is on and I am confident we will march ahead. Contentious issues that were bulldozed by the respective parties in the present government are the main issues- be it the CAA, lawlessness, alleged corruption that we will bring forward to the people to judge,” he announced.
Zenith Sangma blamed the NPP and Agatha for supporting and voting for CAA in Parliament.
He also said that the decision to field a candidate in Tura was born from failed negotiations and consultations within the INDIA alliance.
Backers of Trinamool’s rival NPP, however, say that the decision to field a candidate in Tura, when Trinamool hasn’t fielded a candidate for the Shillong seat, is because of age old rivalry between the Mukul Sangma and Conrad Sangma families that dates back to the time of even Late P A Sangma.
“Major problems are being faced in our state, from unemployment to lawlessness and corruption in a big way,” alleged Mukul Sangma.
He warned that instances of law and order are going to aggravate unless steps are taken to check against it.
“Major law and order challenges were confronted but with the collective resolve of the people and the government we were able to restore peace. Today the sustainability of this peace is in question. Instances of law and order are only going to aggravate and I would like to caution everyone that what you are seeing today is only the tip of the iceberg, the mounting frustration and anger among the youth and the population,” said the Trinamool leader.
He also pointed to the failure of sustaining institutions under 6th Schedule protecting the state, particularly the GHADC whose employees have not been paid for close to three years.
But the ruling NPP led alliance heading the Executive committee in the GHADC under Chief Executive Member Albinush Marak has been on the offensive clarifying about the pending salaries and pointing out that although their regime has cleared salaries for all the months they have been in charge, it is the backlog of over two years that were left uncleared which has impacted the district council.
Opponents of the trinamool point out that the largest share of dues was accumulated during tenures of previous ECs of the Congress, a party in which Mukul Sangma himself was part of, until recently.
The Trinamool legislative leader has said that he intends to also raise a voice against alleged illegalities taking place along the Indo-Bangla border of Garo Hills where large-scale smuggling out of sugar and smuggling of betel nuts into the country is having a negative impact on farmers.
“ Officers who have made attempts to check such instances have been shunted out-transferred which is proof of the kind of patronage I am referring to,” charged Mukul Sangma.
