E-Paper
Ram Madhav flies to Imphal amid crisis in Manipur govt, CBI questions former CM
Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s government in Manipur plunged into crisis last week after nine MLAs, including four ministers from the NPP withdrew support.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday dispatched its national general secretary Ram Madhav to Imphal in another firefighting operation to save the BJP-led coalition government that has been reduced to a minority following a spate of resignations by MLAs.
Madhav landed a day after Assam health minister and the BJP’s main trouble shooter in the Northeast Himanta Biswa Sarma and Meghalaya Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) president Conard Sangma left Imphal along with four NPP MLAs of Manipur to meet central leaders in New Delhi,
Responding to the question on threat to the state’s BJP-led coalition Madhav said, “We’re being asked about stability since one year. It has been stable .It has been winning elections. We’ll be stable until 2022.”
Madhav also attended a function to felicitate newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP Leishemba Sanajaoba.
On Tuesday, Himanta Biswa Sarma,convenor of North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and NPP national chief Sangma left Imphal on a chartered flight to New Delhi.
Before their departure, Sarma told reporters that they wanted to bring an amicable solution to end misunderstanding among the lawmakers in the state by resolving all the differences and concentrate on “development and elections.”
In another development, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team recorded the statement of Congress leader and former Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh in Imphal in connection with its probe into alleged misappropriation of funds when he headed the government, sources said.
It is alleged that the former chief minister while he was chairman of Manipur Development Society (MDS) from June 30, 2009 to July 6, 2017, misappropriated the government funds worth ₹332 crores along with others.
Apart from him, others named in the case are former chief secretaries of the state DS Poonia, PC Lawmuknga, O Nabakishore Singh, Y Ningthem, former MDS project director, and S Ranjit Singh, its administrative officer.
Ibobi SIngh clarified that his tenure as chairman of MDS was barely one year’s period (July 2013 to August 2014) only.
Welcoming the investigation, he said that he was never involved in the transaction activities other than chairing the annual meeting of MDS as the rule authorized its project director for the purpose.
“I never signed on any cheques for sanction etc. I will extend my full cooperation in the investigation,” he said.
Ibobi Singh had staked claim to for the next government Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s administration plunged into crisis last week after nine MLAs, including four ministers from the NPP withdrew support.
