Congress dismisses BJP criticism

From Staff Correspondent

Shillong, Oct 2: The State Congress on Monday dismissed the accusation made by the BJP four days back that the Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) government was corrupt.

Union Minister of State for Tourism Alphons Kanntham and BJP general secretary lin Kohli, during their Durga Puja sojourn to the State Capital, had accused the Mukul Sangma government of “stealing people’s money” and of being literally good for nothing.

Countering the BJP central leadership, State Urban Affairs Minister Ronnie VV Lyngdoh told The Sentinel on Monday that the primary objective of the charges leveled against the present dispensation by those at the helm of affairs at the Centre is to deflect the people’s attention from what they could not achieve in the last three years.

“The NDA government has all its misplaced priorities and wants the same to be introduced in the State,” Lyngdoh alleged, adding “What do you expect from the same set of people in the State who listed the same priorities like yoga when it is supposed to be extracurricular activities and hobbies for those wanting it”.

He asked the State BJP leadership to exercise caution while criticising the Congress-led MUA government.

The Minister said the BJP should instead talk of real economic development, unemployment, investment and other burning issues confronting the people.

While the BJP has been hard-hitting in its criticism of the Mukul Sangma government by questioning the effectiveness of its so called slew of measures in the past nine years, Lyngdoh shot back by saying that the BJP at the Centre should carry forward the initiatives of the UPA government in right earnest “instead of reming or aping what the Congress government at the Centre had done and on how the Meghalaya government had taken them forward”.