Shillong, Jan 31: National People’s Party (NPP) spokesperson Ampareen Lyngdoh on Tuesday said the first assignment of the next government will be to put a seal on the border agreement with Assam.
“The MoU has not been fully signed because there is still this uncertainty which seems to prevail especially with people living in the borders but I can assure that (in) 2023, the first assignment of the next government will be putting a seal on that MoU,” Lyngdoh told reporters.
Slamming the opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) leader Dr. Mukul Sangma for claiming that it will undo the border agreement, the East Shillong legislator said the Congress could not resolve the border issue all those years because it was under the leadership of the same individual.
“The same individual, now says, will revert and he (Mukul) will redo the whole border problem, now you can’t be like this. You cannot create a gimmick from a very serious problem like the border,” she said.
“What is wrong with the talks that are going on now? As a leader you could have attended the committees, the regional committees were there, the hearings were there, you were a member of the house, you were leader of opposition (LO), you were given ample opportunity to discuss this matter. To say that everything (is) done by someone else is wrong then I would say you should have used the correct platform when you were provided with those platforms to discuss the errors so that those corrections could have been made,” Lyngdoh added.
Also predicting that the AITC will not have a big presence in 2023, she said, “…my anticipation is to wait for your turn, let elections finish. Let us get back on the ground and let us see what we can do, what needs to be done. But, do not make the border an issue, which as if it is only your agenda, it is all our agenda. You remember all of us debated thoroughly in the house. That was the platform which should have been given to anyone. Just wait and watch, let us be patient.”
Asserting the need to save Meghalaya from AITC, the NPP leader said, “That is the slogan, we should cautious of (TMC), because really we are not aware of too many details about the TMC and that is one of the reasons why I don’t go to the TMC.”
Stating that there is also need to rely on hard ground reality checks, she said that the We Card and MYE Card promised by the AITC is not going to work in the long run because it involves crores of rupees per month.
“We did a brief calculation. Maybe it will run into Rs 400 crore (a month or a year). So it is very difficult to deliver those kinds of promises,” she said while adding, “The NPP on the other hand doesn’t promise, it does action, it has acted that is why people like us have also gone to the NPP.”
