Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has justified that the ground floor Meghalaya House located at Russell Street, Kolkata was allotted to an individual because it was lying idle for several years.
The Voice of the People Party (VPP) had questioned the special favour shown by the MDA government towards the Dhar family by allotting an advantageous floor in the Meghalaya House, Kolkata to Rocky Dhar for his business purpose.
It may be mentioned that Rocky is the nephew of Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar. He also manages the business empire of the Dhar family.
However, the Chief Minister claimed that a tender was floated and Dhar was the highest bidder. He indirectly hit back at the VPP and said, “I would urge everybody to do a detailed homework.”
Sangma stated that the floor was lying utilized almost for the last 15 years. “You are talking of loss of crores of revenue for the state government. It’s a beautiful asset which should have been tendered out a long time ago. We took it up somewhere in 2019 because when I visited the halls were just lying empty,” he said.
According to the Chief Minister, the tourism and agriculture counters were not productive and hence there was no revenue generated.