SHILLONG:
The state government will file a defamation case against All India Trinamool Congress national spokesperson Saket Gokhale on December 7 for making baseless allegations.
Gokhale was on December 6 detained by the Gujarat Police for his tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi vis-a-vis the recent Morbi bridge collapse in which over 130 people had died.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on December 6 told reporters that the defamation case will be filed against Gokhale for accusing the government of misusing Rs 632 crore meant for the Meghalaya Ecotourism Infrastructure Development Project.
“This man keeps finding fault with the functioning of the state government. I personally feel this man is becoming like a psycho type,” Tynsong told reporters.
He said allegations should be substantiated and not just based on hearsay to be put up in the public domain.
Stating that the government can no longer tolerate such irresponsible acts, Tynsong said, “We have no more patience. The allegations made by him are baseless and wrong. By tomorrow (Wednesday), we are going to file a defamation case against this man, who last night or today morning was also picked up by the Gujarat police because of the allegation he made against the Prime Minister. So you can understand the credential of the so-called national spokesperson of the AITC.”
Tynsong informed that the Meghalaya Ecotourism Infrastructure Development Project is an externally-aided project funded by NDB.
“We got a sanction of Rs 732 crore and not as alleged Rs 632 for implementing different projects throughout the state right from 2022 till 2026 as per agreement signed between government and the NDB,” he said.
He informed, “So out of Rs 732 crore, the tender already called and allotted is only for Rs 230 crore and others are in the pipeline.”
“He (Gokhale) said even account auditing is not done but that is not true. Again, everything has been done and I remember this is the same fellow, the same man who had made allegations against implementation of smart city project,” he added.
Tynsong said that the intention of the AITC leader is to spoil the image of the state government adding, “other than that he doesn’t have anything and it seems he is also a psycho and I say this with due respect.”
Whether a case would also be filed against the AITC, the deputy chief minister said that the defamation suit is against the spokesperson of the party.
Questioning the Meghalaya AITC for keeping silent on the matter, Tynsong said, “I really fail to understand the state unit of the AITC. What are they doing, why are they keeping quiet, I think they also need to react. If a national leader talks against any political party or any government in any particular state, I think the state unit of such a party needs to step in and they also need to clarify but right now they just kept quiet. I don’t know what is happening to them.”
On the allegation that names of contractors were not revealed publicly, a government statement had said, the works tenders have been floated by the respective departments – Public Works Department, Directorate of Tourism and the State Sports Council of Meghalaya. The entire tendering process is being done as per the norms of the state government and is being overseen and approved by the New Development Bank. All the details are made available to the public on – https://meghalayatenders.gov.in.
With regard to Gokhale’s claim that majority of projects under the ecotourism project are road constructions, the government had said that the roads sub-projects comprises just 14 per cent of the total project size. Further, these road sub-projects are indeed being taken up by the PWD as part of the overall project. It must be noted that the development of tourism cannot happen in silos. Connectivity is integral to tourism and such connectivity projects are also taken under Centre-sponsored programmes such as SWADESH Darshan and PRASAD.
On the allegation that not a single financial report was filed with the ministry concerned, the government had said, “All the statutory and legal compliances are being met and followed by the Meghalayan Age Limited. It is mandated by the external funding agencies (New Development Bank in this case) that Project Management Units (PMU) be set up for overseeing the progress and implementation of the externally aided projects. These PMUs are selected through international, open and competitive bidding and typically global consulting firms get onboarded as PMUs. This standard process is being followed for all the EAPs in not just Meghalaya, but in other State and Central Government projects too.”