UDP is open to any investigation: Dkhar

SHILLONG, FEB 17: The United Democratic Party, which is the main ally of the NPP-led MDA government, on Friday said it is open to any investigation.

“If you recollect our very own minister at one point of time had said whether it is him or his brother or his father or anyone for that matter if they have broken the law, due course of law will be taken up. So we stand open to any investigation and even if the culprits are from within the party so be it. But as a party collectively we stand for a clean and corrupt free government,” UDP vice president Allantry F Dkhar told reporters.

His statement came days after the BJP had promised to set up a special task force to be headed by a retired Supreme Court order for investigating all cases of corruption in Meghalaya.

Dkhar also refused to comment on the union home minister Amit Shah’s statement that Meghalaya the most corrupt state and said, “…we are still yet to be privy to those documentations, we have nothing much to say about his statements. To me it is just another way of befooling the people into believing that the BJP will deliver a better government.”

He said that the party is opposed to the idea of offering freebies to the voters adding “in other words we would like to teach our people how to fish and not give them the fish”.

On the allegation that UDP is also team-B of the BJP, Dkhar said, “We are a team of no one as we intend to come out on March 2 as UDP team A.”

He also expressed confidence will definitely lead the government even if it does not get an absolute majority.

“We want our party to lead the government because from past experiences while partnering with the Congress in the previous government then now with another national party, the NPP, we have come to realize we need to appeal to the electorate to give us one chance, the way they did in 1988,” he said while adding “But sadly in 1988 the absence of the anti-defection law brought down the government in the middle of its tenure. This time around we are hopeful that the people will listen to our humble appeal that they will give us the mandate to lead the government and then we will showcase our metal which we have proven in the past.”

The UDP leader said that the party has raised many issues despite being part of the coalition government.

“Just because we are in a coalition, it does not mean we have to sing the same song especially in light of the fact that we are heading to polls on our own,” he said.

“Let me take you back to the time when the point of differences were raised within the coalition to show that we have our own ideology, our own principles that guide us that is why when there was a big hue and cry over the illegal transportation of coal and illegal mining and Mr James Sangma, then home minister was being accused as culprit for facilitating all these, we as a party took it upon ourselves and impress upon the chief minister the need to change portfolios and the CM had done that and fortunately and unfortunately he had handpicked our MLA to be the next home minister.

Then came the MeECL imbroglio, the Saubhagya scam and so many other scams – there too we put our foot down and said we cannot tolerate such kind of happenings in the MeECL and it is incumbent upon the CM to remove the power minister as well as CMD who was a very junior officer and that was done,” Dkhar said.

He added, “So it does not that just because we are in the coalition we have to defend each and everything that government has done because at the end of the day box stop with the CM, he leads the cabinet, he leads the government, we have only three ministers, we are outnumbered even in the cabinet.”

When asked, the UDP vice president admitted that illegal coal mining is still going on in the state and said, “However you should also check the data on the seizures made, the numbers of trucks that were seized for involvement in coal transportation. Efforts are being made and it was rightly pointed out by the Meghalaya High Court that the state needs central forces to monitor such incidents as apparently it appears that the state police department is bereft of the required strength to impose the NGT ban.”

By Our Reporter