The sleepy village of Babadam on the outskirts of Tura under North Tura constituency on Wednesday turned out to be melting pot for several villages as people gathered to witness Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma’s election campaign for sitting Congress legislator Noverfield R Marak.
The chief minister arrived at Babadam field around 4:30 pm, about 26 km from Tura in a chartered chopper after addressing three other rallies including Tikrikilla, where BJP chief Amit Shah had addressed a massive rally in January.
Speaking at length for about one hour fifteen minutes, Sangma explained on the intervention of his government and clarified to his opponent for branding him of owning a stone factory.
“I have raised the standard of development in Meghalaya. Any other government after me will have to follow suit otherwise they will be pulled down by the people,” he said.
Terming 2013 election as historic in Meghalaya, Mukul said, “We gave a stable government minus the regional parties. We delivered to our promises despite challenges and beyond to accelerate the momentum of growth in the state. From PWD roads to locality roads in towns and villages, we gave each a priority”.
He highlighted road projects including the Shillong-Nongstoin-Tura highway, border roads from Ampati-Mahendraganj connecting Dalu, the Shillong-Mawkyrwat-Ranikor to Baghmara road, Athiabari-Nongstoin road, and the Shillong to Balat road, among others.
He also mentioned about the government’s move to have a medical college in Tura and the College for Architecture and Urban Planning near Tura, which would be the first in the Northeast.
The chief minister did not fail to attack the opposition parties accusing them of hijacking Congress developmental projects whenever government changed in the state.
“My opponents are always there to pull me down by striking off projects initiated by me,” he said, adding, “Whenever we have initiated developmental projects the next government always strikes it. Every project cannot be completed in five years”.
He expressed his fear that due to unstable political scenario that prevails in Meghalaya the development of the state is at the risk of derailment.
“We are working for the people but there are some leaders who are jealous,” he added, while talking of Ganol Hydel power projects, which were struck down in 2008, when UDP-NCP and HSPDP had formed the government.