A heated verbal exchange was witnessed between Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Umroi MLA George Lyngdoh in the Assembly today over the boundary agreement with Assam.
It started with Lyngdoh questioning the chief minister as to why the State government went ahead with the second phase of boundary talks with Assam without taking the stakeholders on board.
Irked by Lyngdoh’s allegations, Sangma accused the Umroi legislator of lying and misleading the House by stating that stakeholders were not taken on board while resolving the Assam-Meghalaya boundary dispute.
“Discussion is a process and not an event of a single day. The process has started and as it moves on we will include, invite, discuss, and have public hearings and multiple meetings. Everyone will be consulted only then we will move ahead with the discussion,” Sangma said.
Lyngdoh said that he raised the issue since all these things did not happen during the first phase of boundary talks.
Lyngdoh said that it was only after signing of the Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) that the Himas and other stakeholders objected to the giving away of land to Assam by the State government.
Rebutting the Umroi MLA’s claim, Sangma said that Lyngdoh was misleading the House completely.
“I can say what the member is saying is a complete lie. In fact, the process of first phase saw multiple stakeholder meetings. For the first time, ministers and concerned officials went to ground zero had multiple public hearings which are on record, not only with Meghalaya but Assam was with us,” Sangma claimed.
“Every stakeholder has been involved. I cannot say that every individual has been involved but the concerned stakeholders were part of it. Be it the District Councils, MDCs and NGOs they were there,” he added.
Urging Lyngdoh to refrain from making such statements which are misleading, the chief minister said, “This is not a press conference. The member should be clear of his facts since this is not the way a responsible member should act.”
He stated that some people may not be happy with the MoU but that does not mean that discussions did not take place with stakeholders.
“A complicated subject like this cannot have every single individual agreeing to every single decision, that is why the government has to take a decision and it is not easy for us,” Sangma said.
Miffed by Sangma’s charges that he tried to mislead the House, Lyngdoh said that as per Rules of Business of the House, personal aspersions cannot be cast on the members.
Lyngdoh also said that the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council passed a resolution opposing the MoU.
“We have people up in arms who are saying they don’t want to go to Assam,” the Umroi legislator said.
