SHILLONG | Sept 05, 2017: Independent legislators Robinus Syngkon and Justine Dkhar, who have expressed their desire to join BJP, wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Meghalaya and clear the stand on beef and coal ban, among other issues, confronting the state.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Syngkon said that during the recent meeting with BJP president Amit Shah and others, the central leadership of the party made it clear there is no question of been ban in Meghalaya and other northeastern states and the party would not interfere in religious beliefs and food habits of people.

“According to the central leadership of the party, it is up to the respective states to frame rules related to cattle and that the Centre has nothing to do with this,” Syngkon said.

He also said the issues related to ownership of land by the people of the state in the context of the move of the state government to outsource mining operations to MMDC and the need to exempt Meghalaya from the purview of central mining laws by way of a presidential notification was taken up with BJP leaders in Delhi who promised that these issues would be examined. Opposing the move of the state government to entrust mining operations to MMDC, Syngkon said this would result in the alienation of land by the people. According to Syngkon, while assurance was given by the central BJP leaders on matter related to beef ban, he hoped that the issues related to ban on coal mining would be addressed too.

Syngkon said he and other likeminded legislators would try to get an audience with the Prime Minister to convey to him on the need to address the people of Meghalaya on these pending issues.

“We have asked the central BJP leaders to schedule a meeting with the Prime Minister. We may also try to meet the President of India besides seeking help from the Prime Minister to address the issue of ban on coal mining,” he said. Justine Dkhar said that since there was no response from the chief minister and others, he and other legislators were compelled to seek the intervention of the BJP leaders.

“I had told the chief minister and also the speaker that the State leaders should give a presentation before the Prime Minister on the resolution adopted by the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly on the need to invoke Para 12 A (b) of the Sixth Schedule which will enable the President of India to give a notification to exempt Meghalaya from the provisions of central mining laws,” Dkhar said.

Dkhar said that he had also raised the issue of ban on coal mining and the problems being faced by the people in every MUA meeting but in vain and as a last resort, he had to seek the intervention of BJP.

According to him, the ban on coal mining by the NGT since 2014 has affected the entire North East and deprived the livelihood of the people of the state. He said that during the recent meeting with Shah and others in Delhi, the central leaders had suggested two ways of solving the issue, one is reducing the powers of the NGT and the second is the presidential notification to exempt Meghalaya from the purview of central mining laws.

Both the Independent legislators said that after getting assurances from the BJP leaders, they will resign from the posts of parliamentary secretaries before officially joining the BJP.

(Source: http://www.theshillongtimes.com/)