BJP issues chargesheet against congress govt in Meghalaya

New Delhi: Upping the ante in poll bound Meghalaya, the BJP released a 38-page document on Thursday highlighting ‘15 Years of Loot, 15 Years of Destruction’ allegedly carried out by Congress led government in the state. The list, released by BJP state in charge and Union Minister KJ Alphons, specifically named cabinet ministers Ampareen Lyngdoh, HDR Lyngdoh and Clement R Marak besides two others, and held them responsible for financial bungling. Alphons described Chief Minister Mukul Sangma as a “devil” on the prowl at night, bent on destroying the state, and accused another Congress leader in the state of running a flesh trade.

“Your own cabinet colleague is running a brothel. Is this what the government is all about, destroying the dignity of the people of Meghalaya, destroying young girls?” he asked, slamming Sangma over the alleged prostitution racket involving a minor girl in a guest house owned by home minister H D R Lyngdoh’s wife. While releasing the list Alphons said, “God’s Paradise is in a complete mess. Successive Congress governments have wrecked the state and future of young people. There are no roads, hospitals or institutions of higher learning. People have to go out for studies, jobs and healthcare.”

The document, accusing Civil Supplies Minister Clement R Marak of being involved in the 2016 sugar scam, stated that the Congress government in Meghalaya had “resorted to favouritism in the tendering process for supply of sugar in the state leaving a loss of Rs 2.7 crore every month to the state’s exchequer.” Alphons said that the people of the state were rich in heritage but otherwise poor as they had been impoverished by the state government. “The state’s ministers, including the chief minister, are growing in wealth. They have bungalows everywhere,” he alleged, adding that the state could have been a hub of tourism and hospitality industries.

The party also accused the Congress of a lackadaisical approach, which it said has allowed the problem of militancy to worsen. It stated that there are as many as 10 militant groups operating in Meghalaya with at least nine operating in Garo Hills alone. Alphons further said, “The only motorable roads in Meghalaya are the national highways. Fortunately, the money for construction of these roads has not been handed over to the state government otherwise he (chief minister) would have walked away with it.” The Union minister claimed that more had been done in the three-and-a-half years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule than in the Congress’s 70 years.