The Congress Party will introduce a new law that is “better than RTI” to help the state root out corruption, it said today on the release of its manifesto for the February 27 Assembly elections.
The party has come out with five commitments that it said would transform Meghalaya. “We are coming up with a transparency law which would be a Mother of RTI. The Congress government brought the Right to Information Act to empower common citizens but the Modi government at the Centre and NPP regime in the state diluted the law step by step and ultimately left it inconsequential,” All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Meghalaya, Manish Chatrath, said.
According to him, the new law designed by the Congress party would mandate successive governments to upload all the files related to development and infrastructure on government portals six months after their closure to bring in more transparency in governance which would reduce corruption to a great extent.
Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee chief Vincent Pala, who is also the Shillong MP and who will be running for the Sutnga-Saipung seat, had to defend his own party for choosing a scam-tainted candidate.
The party’s choice for Umroi, Stanlywiss Rymbai, was arrested in 2017 in connection with a multi-crore land scam in Ri-Bhoi.
The former MLA had received Rs 8 crore from the Forest and Environment Department for land meant for afforestation work at Mawpalai. This was despite the fact that the land was already in the possession of the Soil and Water Conservation Department. Rymbai had claimed that he was authorised by the village to hold the power of attorney to purchase the land.
Pala today said that as he has not yet been convicted, he has every right to contest the seat.
“We cannot say he has committed the crime of land grabbing until he is convicted by law,” Pala said, adding that the party consulted with lawyers before allotting the party ticket to its candidates.
Hitting out at the state government, the MPCC leader said that revenue leakage in Meghalaya is very high.
“Even though a challan is for 9 tonnes for limestone and 10 tonnes for coal, thousands of trucks carry almost 60 tonnes of coal everyday and leakage of revenue is very high,” he said, adding that Meghalaya is one of the richest states in terms of minerals and if these leaks could be plugged it would be the richest state.
Meanwhile, on the issue of drugs, which was also highlighted in the manifesto, Pala said that even though the state does not have enough rehabilitation centres, the number of its wine shops keeps increasing.
He also said that Meghalaya has also become a central point for drugs coming from Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and other states in the North East because of loose boundaries ruining the lives of the current and future generations.
“When we go for door to door visits, many parents would cry out to us because some of their sons are in jail or are facing other problems due to drugs and alcohol,” Pala said.
