Shillong, Dec 6: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Tuesday referred to the opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) Saket Gokhale as “psycho” and said a defamation case will be filed on Wednesday against Gokhale for accusing the government of misusing Rs 632 crore meant for the Meghalaya Ecotourism Infrastructure Development Project.
“This man keeps alleging the functioning of this state government and this is not the first time but he keeps doing this now and then which I ultimately personally feel this man is becoming like a psycho type,” Tynsong told reporters.
He said allegations should be substantiated with documents but “this man it seems he just knows from here and there and ultimately he puts it in the public domain and brings out the allegation in the form of a statement, which is totally wrong.”
Stating that the government can no longer tolerate such irresponsible acts, Tynsong said, “We have no more patience. The allegations made by him are baseless and wrong. By tomorrow (Wednesday), we are going to file a defamation case against this man, who unfortunately last night or today morning was also picked up by the Gujarat police because of the allegation he made against the Prime Minister. So you can understand the credential of the so-called national spokesperson of the AITC.”
Tynsong also informed that the Meghalaya Ecotourism Infrastructure Development Project is an externally aided project funded by NDB. “We got a sanction of Rs 732 crore and not as alleged Rs 632 for implementing different projects throughout the state right from 2022 till 2026 as per agreement signed between government and the NDB,” he said.
“So out of Rs 731 crores, the tender already called and allotted is only Rs 230 crores and others are in the pipelines,” he added.
“He (Gokhale) said even account auditing is not done but that is not true. Again, everything has been done and I remember this is the same fellow, the same man who alleged against the implementation of smart city that also I had clarified everything,” he further added.
When asked, Tynsong said the intention of the AITC leader is very clear, which is to spoil the image of the state government adding “other than that he doesn’t have anything and it seems he is also a psycho and I say this with due respect.”
Whether a case would also be filed against the AITC, the deputy chief minister said that the defamation suit is against the spokesperson of the party. “How many times he has challenged CM and myself that we have to debate this. I mean we don’t have time, why should we debate with him, who he is,” he said.
Questioning the Meghalaya AITC for keeping silent on the matter, Tynsong said, “I really fail to understand the state unit of the AITC. What are they doing? Why are they keeping quite? I think they also need to react. If the national leader talk against any political party or any government in any particular state, I think the state unit of such party needs to step in and they also need to clarify but right now they just kept quite. I don’t know what is happening to them.”
