While Meghalaya Government have been pressing for number of demands, the centre so far was mum on the issues. With Eight United Democratic Party MLAs merging with BJP, the centre reportedly has agreed upon most of the demand, but now the question arises who should be given credit for this achivement.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma sought to shift the focus from political credit to the outcome of the demands being pursued by Meghalaya, saying that the priority should be to achieve the goals rather than determine who should receive credit. He said any progress on the issues, including the demand for language recognition, should ultimately benefit the people of Meghalaya.
“I think it’s wrong to think it as credit, I think what is important is to achieve the goal and everybody has role to play in achieving the goal,” Sangma said.
On the BJP increasing its tally to 10 following the joining of eight UDP MLAs, Sangma said expansion was a natural feature of democratic politics and said the NPP would focus on strengthening its own base.
“Every political party has their desire to grow, and I think in a democracy and in politics, every party will aspire, we aspire to grow in different states,” the Chief Minister said.
He said the NPP would continue to contest elections on its own terms and maintain its identity.
“So when election comes, I was always very clear to all of you that we always fight on our own terms as our own identity, and that will continue in the future also,” Sangma said.
Sangma said his priority was finding solutions rather than seeking political attention.
“For me, it is more important to find a solution to the problem,” the Chief Minister said.
On coal mining, he said Meghalaya had moved forward after the Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict but that mining had to comply with the MMDR Act and scientific requirements. He said four mines were currently functional, while the viability of mining operations remained a concern.
“Scientific minings have to be done, open cast mining has to be done so on and so forth, and therefore we have four Mines functional as of now,” Sangma said.
Sangma acknowledged that all issues concerning miners had not yet been resolved and said environmental and safety concerns required further scientific and technical examination.
“Have we been able to resolve all the issues concerned to all the miners? Maybe not yet,” the Chief Minister said.
