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Meghalaya : No threat to Government, claims Chief Minister |
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Completing a month in office amid growing discontent and criticism, Meghalaya Chief Minister J.D. Rymbai on July 17 put up a brave front and denied that his government was “skating on thin ice.”
Back from his first official visit to the Garo Hills, the Chief Minister dismissed reports of instability in his cabinet.
Rymbai took over the reins of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance from D.D. Lapang on June 16.
The new Ministry has been under pressure from certain Congress workers and members to include “senior MLAs,” in place of “relative newcomers”.
Speaking to a select group of newspersons, Rymbai asserted that the resentment expressed by the MLAs was nothing but “issues of difference in a family” and would not have any repercussions at the helm.
Admitting that he was yet to assess the ground situation during his absence, he said he would hold discussions with Lapang and other senior members of the party.
Highly-placed sources said a number of Congress MLAs who had shifted loyalties from the former Chief Minister have expressed the desire to support him again. Former Home Minister H.D.R. Lyngdoh on July 17 met Lapang at his residence. Lyngdoh, however, did not reveal the agenda of the meeting. Talks of Lapang resuming the office of Chief Minister are already doing the rounds in the corridors of the Meghalaya PCC.
Meanwhile, the state government has intensified vigil along its boundary with Assam after pushing back over 200 suspected Bangladeshis into the neighbouring state on July 17.
Shillong police, in what they called a “routine exercise”, raided the Pynthorumkhrah area of the city and picked up nearly a thousand illegal Bangladeshi migrants on Sunday. All of them were brought to the Sadar police station for verification of identity. Over 200 persons were subsequently deported and discarded in the Khanapara area in neighbouring Assam as they could not prove their identity.
Though top police officials termed this was a regular exercise, there was no explanation as to why the police had to take up an operation of this magnitude all of a sudden.
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