Meghalaya Lokayukta Row: VPP decides to temporarily keep agitation on hold

Amid the row over the removal of Meghalaya Lokayukta officials escalating, the Voice of People’s Party (VPP) which is the principal opposition party in the state, has decided to keep it agitation on hold till a meeting with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma happens.

The VPP leadership expects the meeting to take place in a day or two.

The VPP decided to keep the protest on hold temporarily after a meeting with Meghalaya Law Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh in Shillong this evening.

Sharing details as to what transpired in the closed door meeting, VPP president and Nongkrem MLA Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit said, “We feel that we should appreciate the law minister for calling us to have a talk and discuss regarding this protest in which we have given a letter to the government expressing our displeasure for removing those officials from the Lokayukta. We know for sure that the law minister cannot give any decision and we cannot arrive at any logical conclusion. But we want to convey a message clearly that as a party we do not want to create any trouble but we have a valid reason. The valid reason is that the government unceremoniously removed, terminated the services of those 3 officers. We feel it is our duty to take up the matter.”

The VPP president also informed that his party is not convinced with the government’s position on the matter and urged the state law minister to convey the same to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.

Speaking about the VPP’s decision to put on hold the proposed agitation, Ardent Miller Basawaimoit said, “Since there will be a meeting between the party and the CM as well as the high officials we feel that it would be appropriate on our part to keep this agitation the sit-in demonstration in abeyance. We are expecting (the meeting) in a day or two, because we don’t feel right also to just issue an ultimatum for everything, we are considerate enough to allow the government to inform us over the telephone.”

However, the VPP in its meeting with Law Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh clearly conveyed that the party is not at all happy with the response made by the government.

Basaiawmoit said, “We are not convinced with the clarification of the govt that whatever the govt has done is because the appointment of those officials is against the law. So we question the government how do you overlook such section which is too glaring in the Act (Meghalaya Lokayukta Act). These are the things that we have discussed, we have raised and we have clearly told the minister in charge law to convey all these pertinent points to the CM, so that in the next meeting we can sit and solve this matter once and for all.”

The Meghalaya government on December 30 last year dismissed three Lokayukta officials through a WhatsApp message. The sacked officials are Director of Inquiry and Prosecution J Rymmai, who is a former IPS officer and Enquiry-cum-Investigating Officers R Pde and Anil K Sangma. The government said that the officials were removed because they had retired and the terminations adhered to the provisions of Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, 2014.