Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 7: NPP leader and North Tura legislator Thomas A Sangma was today nominated as the candidate of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA-2) for the post of Speaker of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.

Thomas A Sangma has also filed his nominations before the Assembly’s Commissioner & Secretary Andrew Simons at the Assembly Secretariat for the upcoming Speaker’s election to be held on March 9.

“Wishing Sh. Thomas A Sangma, Speaker nominee of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly the very best,” Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma tweeted.

Speaking to reporters, Thomas lauded the decision of the MDA-2 government led by Conrad Sangma to nominate him for the coveted post. He also thanked the previous government for giving him the opportunity to serve the people.

The MDA-2 government has the support of 45 MLAs of which 26 are from NPP, 11 UDP, 2 BJP, 2 HSPDP, 2 PDF and 2 Independents.

The opposition bench on the other hand has a strength of 14 members which include 5 Congress, 5 All India Trinamool Congress and 4 Voice of the People Party.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 7: UDP leader and newly sworn-in cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh today referred to the Conrad K Sangma-led MDA-2 government as a “dream team” and said the expectations are well justified.

“We have a team which is comparatively more mature and there is more quality in it in terms of the experience and educational qualification of the various members of the cabinet,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

The West Shillong legislator added, “As I said this looks to be a more cohesive, a more experienced, qualitatively far better cabinet so it is a dream team…the expectations are well justified.”

Stating that the allocation of the portfolio is the prerogative of the chief minister, Lyngdoh said, “I am sure he will use his sense of balance to ensure every minister is able to perform to the optimum.”

The UDP, which is the second-largest party with 11 members, was given two cabinet berths.

On the party’s performance with two cabinet berths, the UDP leader however said, “Well, quality is everything, the number is nothing. You can have any portfolios and you don’t deliver and you have one minister holding five departments and he delivers so well so that is the comparison.”

Whether there is any agreement among the UDP MLAs for sharing of the cabinet berths, Lyngdoh said, “Well I am not privy to any such information. Let’s live one day at a time and make the best use of that single day and let’s perform today and again perform tomorrow. We will take one day at a time.”

The West Shillong legislator said, “Qualitatively Meghalaya deserves better and my sincere attempt right from the word go is to optimize the potential that God has given me and I am sure that goes for every member of the cabinet.”

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 7: The BJP national vice president and Meghalaya In-charge Dr M Chuba Ao remained tight-lipped regarding the party’s stand to fight against corruption.

On BJP to go ahead with its decision to investigate all cases of corruption against the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA-I) government, Dr Ao said, “Now, we are not talking about corruption. Let us form the government after that we will work and you will see how smoothly we run the government.”

He said the allegations of corruption were made during election time. “They also make allegations against our political party (that it is a) Hindu party and Hindutva”.

He however said there is no proof of the allegations of corruption. “We will stick to that only but we will work and we will come to know what is there. We also promise that we will not do such kinds of things,” Dr Ao said.

Whether he meant to say there was no corruption at all in the MDA-I government, the BJP leader however said, “I can’t say because at that time we were not so much acquainted with each other it is only we form the government to take the numbers but this time we are much more united.”

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 7: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided that the cabinet berth will be shared between the two of its MLAs – Alexander Laloo Hek and Sanbor Shullai.

The decision came a day before Hek was sworn in as cabinet minister in the Conrad K Sangma-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA-2) government.

In a letter to the NPP Chief, the BJP state president Ernest Mawrie said, “The party and its MLAs have symbiotically agreed to allow AL Hek to hold the berth for the first two and a half years which will end on August 7, 2025, following which Sanbor Shullai will hold the cabinet berth for the remaining term. Both the MLAs are hereby asked to respect and abide by the decision of the party and work mutually to ensure good governance and also to ensure check and balance.”

“Thus, I request your esteemed office to kindly honour the decision of the party and ensure both the MLAs get equal opportunity considering their seniority and support to your government,”  he added.

BJP Meghalaya In-charge Dr M Chuba Ao along with Hek and Shullai were also signatories of the letter submitted to the NPP chief.

After attending the swearing-in ceremony of the 12-member council of ministers, Shullai told reporters that this time an official agreement to share the cabinet berth between the two MLAs was made in the presence of the party leaders unlike in the last term which was only a “verbal agreement”.

“Besides the chief minister, the letter was also sent to the BJP national president JP Nadda and general secretary Rituraj Sinha,” he said.

Shullai said he does not have any problem waiting for his turn to take over as cabinet minister after 2 and a half years.

On his role in the government, the former cabinet minister said, “It will depend on the prerogative of the chief minister. I will accept anything for the interest of the people of my constituency.”

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 7: National People’s Party chief Conrad K Sangma today took oath as chief minister for the second consecutive term even as he pledged to build a better Meghalaya for the people.

The oath-taking ceremony was held in the ‘historic’ presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and Assam chief minister and NEDA chairman Himanta Biswa Sarma were also among those present on the occasion.

Governor Phagu Chauhan administered the oath to the 12-member council of ministers.

Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhalang Dhar took oath as deputy chief ministers.

Ampareen Lyngdoh is the lone woman sworn in as cabinet minister.

Commingone Ymbon, AT Mondal, Marcuise N Maram and Rakkam A Sangma were among those from the NPP who were sworn in as cabinet ministers.

UDP's Paul Lyngdoh and Kyrmen Shylla, Alexander Laloo Hek of the BJP and Shakliar Warjri of the HSPDP also took oath as ministers.

The National People’s Party-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance-2 government has the support of 45 MLAs.

Spelling out his top priorities on being sworn in as chief minister, Conrad K Sangma said, “We have laid the foundation in the last five years for many sectors and we will continue to work aggressively on those foundations and build a better state for our people.”

“We will continue to focus on the areas in which we are working in the last five years primarily to ensure that the overall infrastructure improvement is there. We are working very hard towards the social sectors improvement like health and education and social welfare. Of course, we are giving a lot of importance to the youth especially when it comes to employment issues and livelihood issues. So those are going to be the main concerns and areas where this government is going to focus on,” he added.

Asserting the need to further improve the overall delivery mechanism and overall efficiency at the grassroots level, Sangma said, “We have improved that in the last five years. The same schemes which were implemented in the previous years did much better in the last five years because the accountability, the monitoring that we did will continue to ensure that the impact at the grassroots level of different programmes and schemes is felt to the maximum level.”

On the decision to have 2 deputy chief ministers, Sangma said there has been a precedence in the past and there is nothing wrong in it. “In fact, it is a strong representation of the different regions of the state and it sends a positive message of ‘inclusiveness’. That is the reason why we have gone ahead with it,” he added.

The chief minister further informed that he would distribute the portfolios among the cabinet ministers within the next 24 to 48 hours.

On the alleged illegal mining and transportation of coal in the state, Sangma said, “Of course, we have always maintained that and we will ensure that steps are taken to ensure no such activities that are there should take place.”

He also assured that scientific mining of coal will start in the next couple of months and said, “It is already in the process. We have worked very hard in the last five years. We have seen that now we are almost on the verge of four different groups that have now received the clearances and their mining plan should be cleared in the next couple of months and post that we expect scientific mining will start in the state.”

With regards to the pending issue related to the relocation of the Sweepers’ Colony from Them Iew Mawlong, the chief minister said the government is going to work towards it.

“The committee has been working very hard in the last five years. We will see how to move forward and carry everybody along and come to an amicable solution,” he said.

He further assured that his government is committed to resolving the remaining six areas of difference with Assam.

Meanwhile, Sangma admitted that there will always be differences and issues among coalition partners and said, “But what is important is that we should work together and we should find our way to amicably solve problems and issues that are there. Of course in coalition partners there could be divergent views on certain issues. That's fine but as I said as we go forward we will ensure there is better coordination and we work as a strong team.”