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MLA
Quota?
We know our political leaders particularly our honorable Member of the Legislative Assembly are entitled to certain perks and privileges and while we do not grudge them anything on this point we would like to go on record and say that when our MLAs start interfering in the search for truth and try to throw a spanner in any attempt to clean up the system by the administrative heads of the Government Departments then we would like to draw a line and say that it should not be encouraged at any cost.
Yes, we are referring to the reported move of the three MLAs of Ukhrul district who had the gumption to write to the Chief Minister to restrain the District Magistrate of Ukhrul after the official had issued an arrest warrant against two transport contractors in connection with the missing 5,500 quintals of rice meant for Ukhrul district. What is even more 'interesting' was the prompt reaction of the Chief Minister to stay the arrest warrant of the transport contractors.
The huge amount of rice was meant for the unemployed youths of Ukhrul district and was to be distributed under the SGRY scheme of the DRDA. While we acknowledge that the MLAs of the three ACs of Ukhrul should be associated with all DRDA schemes in their respective area we would also like to point out that their association should not mean efforts to shield any suspect in the case of the benefits not reaching the targeted beneficiaries. That something has gone wrong with the entire distribution of the rice was exposed in the local media in the first week of June itself.
And the Government too appears to have acknowledged that something is amiss with the Chief Minister announcing that a high level committee will probe the matter. However when MLAs deem it fit to approach the Chief Minister to restrain an official no less than the District Magistrate then it suggests that the MLAs may have something more than just goodwill to provide protection to the suspects, in this case, the transport contractors. More importantly what does the Chief Minister stand to gain by providing protection to the transport contractors?
As Opposition MLA O Joy newsmen on July 9, the rice may have gone to the workers of the three MLAs of Ukhrul district, in which case, the entire exercise of drawing up the beneficiary list could have been avoided! Joy may have a point here as the MLAs seemed too eager to protect the contractors from the clutches of law but what defies logic and reasoning is the prompt reaction of the Chief Minster not to arrest named suspects. Surely the rice could not have gone to the workers of O Ibobi. Then why was the Chief Minister as eager as the three MLAs to protect the named suspects? It could not have been a question of saving the blushes of Government as no evidence has been established that the three MLAs either directly or indirectly were involved in the scam.
Moreover the Opposition too does not have much teeth to grind given the fact that one of the three MLAs who wrote to the Chief Minister, as disclosed by O Joy, is a BJP MLA. There are just too many unanswered questions on why the Chief Minister chose to act the way he did. The answer, we think lies much deeper than merely protecting the contractor and has something to do with the internal affairs of the Congress.
In the first place who tipped off the administration and the media about the missing rice? Surely not some ordinary individuals who are not privy to the matters of the Government. And how did it come to the knowledge of O Joy that the three Ministers had written to the Chief Minister asking him to restrain the DC and secure the safety of the contractors? And again more importantly where has the huge quantity of 5,500 quintals of rice disappeared? Has a second party, not at all in the picture, taken possession of the whole consignment of rice? These are clear writings on the wall that not everything is hunky dory within the Congress and the rough and tumble of politics as understood in Manipur may just be beginning to catch up with the Chief Minister.
(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)
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