Women cross swords with Paul over SMB deal

HNYF ups the ante on land alienation issue

From our Correspondent

SHILLONG, Dec 18: The Civil Society Women’s Organization (CSWO) has condemned the statement made by Urban Affairs Minister Paul Lyngdoh against the Hynniewtrep National Youth Front (HNYF) terming it as an “immature statement.”

The Urban Affairs Minister had come up with a strong statement against the HNYF calling them a “coterie of matriculates.” His statement came after the youth body set a 30-day ultimatum to the Government to scrap the lease agreement entered between the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) and the HM Cements Limited.

Castigating the statement, the women’s organizations today said, “It just goes to show he (Lyngdoh) graduated with no grades.” Demanding scrapping of the agreement, the CSWO pointed out that the State generates enough revenue and there was no need for a joint venture. While demanding transparency in all deals entered by the Government, the CSWO also urged the people to demand for their own rights for the good of the future generation.

Supporting the move of the HNYF, the women’s organizations stated that the HNYF made the reasonable demand. The pretext of generating revenue was laughable, they said. “The Urban Department has wasted a lot of funds in useless planning, thereby draining the State exchequer,” CSWO said, adding, “The bunch of Matriculates could have governed better.”

Meanwhile, the HNYF has taken strong exception to the statement made by the Urban Affairs Minister. In a statement the HNYF general secretary Sadon Blah said, “It is unbecoming for a public leader to indulge in cheap slander. As a pressure group we are doing our duty. As a leader Paul Lyngdoh should have the decency to clarify matters and discuss the issue with us instead of calling us names.”

Reminding Lyngdoh of his days as a student leader when ‘many non-matriculate and matriculates’ in the KSU had made great sacrifices and finally paved the way for him to reach the zenith of politics, the HNYF said “now that he is in the seat of power he has become a ‘salesman politician’ selling out everything that belongs to the people of Hynniewtrep to the highest bidder.

Terming the lease of the SMB complex to HM Cements Ltd a ‘dubious deal and a subtle form of land alienation in our State to non-tribal capitalists whose only intentions are to exploit the tribes,’ the HNYF questioned why the Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) for reconstruction of the SMB building on PPP mode was published on December 25, 2008 (Christmas Day) only in a section of the media. They alleged that this was to ensure that HM Cements got the contract since the local people would have been busy with Christmas celebration. The HNYF said, there were many tribal business people who could have come up with the required amount for the SMB construction work if the NIT was widely publicized but they allege that there is some underhand deal between the Urban Affairs Minister and HM Cements which resulted in the contract going to the latter. Lyngdoh had made his stand clear that the lease was for a period of thirty years and the development of a multiplex by the company would be on a shared basis and everything had been done in the “right spirit and on a calculated plan.” THE SENTINEL