Congress leaders have no hope in their party: Conrad

Shillong, Jan 8: National People’s Party (NPP) national president, Conrad K. Sangma said that Congress leaders have no hope in the party, because it has no future in the country.

Addressing a rally at Nartiang in Jaiñtia Hills to drum up support for his party candidate Sniawbhalang Dhar, the former Congress MLA of Nartiang constituency, Conrad expressed confidence that the NPP would form the new government in Meghalaya once the assembly elections results are declared.

The ninth Meghalaya Assembly comprising 60 members was constituted on March 7, 2013 and its term expires on March 6, 2018.

According to Conrad, the NPP has prepared a road map and mission document for the state, which encompasses all important issues for the welfare of the people.

Claiming that Congress would lose in the upcoming Assembly elections, Conrad said, “There was a time when Congress party used to rule in 18 states, which has been reduced to four states currently. After 2018 elections, Congress will lose Meghalaya as well.”

He said that not just the people have lost faith and confidence in Congress but even its leaders, like former Chief Minister D.D.Lapang, Deputy Chief Minister Roytre Christopher Laloo and Health and Family Welfare Minister Roshan Warjri opted not to contest the upcoming polls because they are not confident.

“When Congress leaders themselves have no hope for the party, why should the public have confidence in the Congress? They know that the Congress has no future in India,” Conrad who is also the Lok Sabha MP from Tura said.

NPP leader Prestone Tynsong said that the chief minister, Mukul Sangma’s policies have wreaked havoc on the economy and fiscal health of the state.

Recalling the series of events that led to the NGT ban, Tynsong said that he had impressed upon the CM to take the issue seriously but the CM did not listen to his advice to set up a cabinet sub-committee to look into the complaints forwarded by the NGT.

“A committee was set up, but not with due consideration to issues raised by the NGT which involved creating mechanisms to minimize environmental pollution and degradation from mining,” said Tynsong.

He said that what the NGT had asked the state government was to form a committee to look into the environmental degradation from coal mining and to formulate a mining policy.

“Since the Mukul Sangma governments couldn’t do this, after the third hearing, and since the NGT did not get any satisfactory response from the state government, it decided to form its own committee which eventually led to the ban”, Tynsong claimed.

Tynsong also held Mukul personally responsible for the ban and for destroying the economy of the state and livelihoods of people.​