Shillong, Jan 7: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday slammed certain leaders for making an issue out of development given to the people of Garo Hills.
He was reacting to the allegations made with regard to the PA Sangma Sports Complex at Tura, West Garo Hills District.
“It is sad that certain leaders are raising this kind of an issue especially when people are getting development. It looks like those leaders who have mentioned this, especially the local leaders who have mentioned this, are people who don’t want development to come to Tura, don’t want development to come to our Garo Hills, don’t want development to come to Meghalaya and that’s why when they see development happening, they make this kind of negative comments, it is very unfortunate,” Sangma told reporters.
BJP leader and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak had earlier questioned the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s decision to inaugurate the PA Sangma Stadium since it is an incomplete project.
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.
He further 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 programs. For example, today we inaugurated JJM schemes everywhere but it is not possible for us to call the minister for JJM from the Centre for everything,” Sangma added.
He said there was no question of the beams being bent adding, “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.”
“If he (Bernard) 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 CM stated.
