SHILLONG, FEB 8: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today came up with a chargesheet exposing the alleged misdeeds and wrong doings of the ruling Congress in the state ahead of the ensuing Assembly polls, slated to be held on February 27.
The 38 pages chargesheet against Congress – “15 years of loot, 15 years of destruction” was released by the BJP election in-charge for Meghalaya and Union Tourism Minister KJ Alphons here on Thursday.
The chargesheet exposed the various scams under the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) governmet and named cabinet ministers Ampareen Lyngdoh, HDR Lyngdoh and Clement R Marak besides two others.
Cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh who was the education minister at the time when the education scam took place in 2009-10 was also named in the police recruitment scam in both cases many undeserving candidates were recruited.
Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh was made accused in the sex racket involving a 14 year-old minor where she was raped and molested several times at a guest house owned by the minister’s son in 2016.
While another MLA Julius Dorphang was charged under POCSO and jailed since last year, Lyngdoh was not dropped from the cabinet, the chargesheet stated.
Another Congress leader and former MLA Stanleywiss Rymbai was charged for his involvement in a land scam in 2012 where an amount of Rs 8 crore was released to him after he claimed to be the rightful representative of the village without any authorisation.
“The Congress government in Meghalaya has resorted to favouritism in the tendering process for supply of sugar in the state leaving a loss of Rs 2.7 crore every month to the state’s exchequer,” the BJP chargesheet said, accusing Civil Supplies Minister Clement R Marak of being involved in the 2016 sugar scam.
However, the BJP did not include the scam related to over Rs 4 crore–expired medicines in its chargesheet. It may be mentioned that the incident had taken place in 2015 during the tenure of former health minister AL Hek, who recently left the Congress to join the BJP.
Asked, Hek however categorically denied that the incident had taken place during his tenure as the health minister. “It was not during my time,” he told reporters when reacting to a query.
The BJP chargesheet also accused the Congress, which has been in power six times since the Meghalaya’s inception in 1972, for making the state “a mess” due to the corrupt and inefficient governments.
On health care, Alphons said that a lady from the chief minister’s region had to be tied to a cot and carried for four days to Bangladesh for treatment adding this shows the state of health facilities in Meghalaya.
“Despite the fact that chief minister of Meghalaya is a doctor himself, health facilities languish in extremely poor conditions,” he said.
The party also accused the Congress for its alleged lackadaisical approach that has allowed the problem of militancy to worsen. It stated that there are as many as 10 militant groups operating in Meghalaya with at least nine operating in Garo Hills alone.
Stating that the law and order in the state has gone for a complete toss, the BJP said sex rackets have become rampant and instances of human trafficking have increased.
Between 2015-2016, rape cases have grown by more than 200 per cent and between 2013 and 2016, crime against children has increased by 35 per cent, it stated adding “If the hotel owned by the home minister’s son is not a safe place for women and children, cann the state of Meghalaya be safe for anybody?”
Giving a status report of the Congress’ 2013 manifesto, the Union Minister said all the promises made by the Congress including the promise of 10,000 jobs to the youths and 10,000 jobs for women were also marked “undelivered”.
By Our Reporter
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