UDP to decide fate of govt on August 10

SHILLONG, August 4: The United Democratic Party legislature party will meet on August 10 to take a "final decision" on the future of the one-year-old UDP-Congress coalition government in Meghalaya. The UDP central executive committee in its meeting on July 21 had authorised the party's legislature party to take a decision on the issue. The meeting has assumed significance in view of the defeat of the ruling Meghalaya Parliamentary Forum candidate in the election to the post of deputy speaker yesterday. The common Opposition candidate, Martin M Danggo, was elected as 10 ruling coalition members cross-voted in his favour. The Speaker, EK Mawlong, also the UDP president, today told newspersons that the defeat of the MPF candidate did not imply instability in the coalition government. "Anyway, a decision will be taken on August 10," he said. Regarding his stand on not accepting the deputy chief minister's post, he said, "We don't need two deputy chief ministers in a small state like ours specially in view of the resource crunch faced by the hill state." He blamed the district administration and the police for yesterday's incident of storming of the well of the House by activists of the Meghalaya Students' Federation (MSF). "The administration erred by not imposing 144 CrPC like it was usually done in earlier Assembly sessions", he said. "We have learnt our lesson from the incident. Enough precautionary measures need to be taken henceforth to prevent any recurrence of such unfortunate incidents", the Speaker observed.