Shillong, June 7: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Saturday slammed the critics for stating that an incomplete PA Sangma stadium was inaugurated by him.
The project cost is over Rs 127 crore and 90% will come from the Centre.
During the induction of former PDF MLA Hamlet Dohling into the NPP, the chief minister told the gathering that certain leaders are making an issue out of development given to the people of Garo Hills.
“Unfortunate to make stadium as election issue .Sad to see when development comes, people are criticised. There will be central funds for projects but it is unfortunate that low level comments are made”, he said.
Union minister of state for minority affairs John Barla during his visit to Tura on Friday found that inauguration by the CM was done without completing the work.
He also pointed out that the Centre’s contribution was not acknowledged by the chief minister.
According to the union minister, the stadium complex was poorly constructed and some beams were already bent.
Barla also wanted the state government to help the evicted families from the site.
Tura MDC Bernard N Marak had earlier questioned the chief minister for inaugurating the ‘incomplete’ PA Sangma Stadium.
In response, the chief minister told reporters that certain leaders are raising the issue especially when people long for development.
“It looks like those leaders who mentioned this especially the local leaders who have mentioned this are people who don’t want development to come to Tura, Garo Hills and the state and it is very unfortunate”, he said.
When asked, the chief minister said that the project has two sections – the first section is the football stadium and the second section is an indoor stadium.
Only football stadium completed
He clarified that the Indoor stadium is yet to start and hence only the first part of the football stadium has been completed.
“It would have been inappropriate for us to call the central minister without finishing the second part. But since the first part has been completed if you do not inaugurate it cannot be used and hence if it is not inaugurated and kept it will get spoiled. Therefore, keeping in mind that the project was not fully completed in the sense that the second part of the indoor stadium has not yet started, it was not appropriate for us to call the central minister. Hence, as chief minister of the state, I inaugurated it and this happens in many programmes. For example today we inaugurated JJM schemes everywhere but it is not possible for us to call the minister for JJM from the Center for everything,” Conrad added.
He said there was no question of the beams being bent.
“It is a world-class stadium that has been made and it is one of the first in the entire Northeast that had been made by prefab structure”, he added.
“If he is referring to the bends that are there in the staircase which are at the back of the stadium which I’m presuming he is, that is how the flow of the staircase goes. It is not meant to be straight, it is supposed to go in a curved manner and if he is referring to that then well that’s how the design was made,” the chief minister added.
Uniform civil code
To a question, Conrad said the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is something which cannot be accepted by his party.
“As a political party, we are very clear that UCC is something that cannot be accepted by NPP.
He, however, said the particular UCC Bill is a private member Bill and it is not a government Bill and hence there was no specific information that this particular Bill was brought in.
Govt moved SC against HC order on border
The chief minister said the Supreme Court’s order which stayed the Meghalaya High Court’s interim order staying further demarcation of border was as per the expectation of the government.
Conrad said the government was very clear that the interim order of the Meghalaya High Court will be stayed by the Supreme Court.
“We have approached the Supreme Court and as expected the Supreme court had stayed it. It has gone as per the expectation that we had,” he said.
According to Conrad, despite the Mukroh incident and the challenges, the second phase of border talks is on right track.
