SHILLONG, DEC 14: State Assembly Speaker Abu Taher Mondal today expressed his eagerness to see that the construction of the new building of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly starts at the earliest.
Addressing the House at the last day of the three-day winter session, Mondal said, “There is one thing that will be a big void for me is the construction of the new Assembly building.”
Stating that it was hoped that the foundation stone for construction of the new building could be laid with the floating of the tender recently, he however said, “When the financial bid was opened one of the bidders have quoted very low rate and the High Powered Committee (HPC) decided to scrap in view that with such low price they will not be able to complete the project.”
At least three out of seven companies, who have casted their tenders, have been qualified after technical evaluation.
These include Shapoorji Pallonji, Simplex Infrastructure Private Limited and Shree Gautum Construction Company Limited.
Mondal also said that he had held series of meetings almost every month on the matter even as he urged the government to speed up the re-tendering process for the project.
“Now it is only for the state government to re-tender and finalize the process so that the construction of the new Assembly can be started at the earliest,” he said while expressing his gratitude to the CM for allotting 80 acres of land at Mawdiangdiang in the New Shillong Township for the project.
It may be mentioned here that the State Legislative Assembly for the past 16 years does not have a permanent building ever since the fire incident that destroyed the old assembly building at Khyndailad way back in 2001.
The incident had made Meghalaya to become the only state without an Assembly building.
The delay in the construction of the new building was also due to problem in finalization of the land.
Welcoming the comments showered by members of the both ruling and opposition on his performances as a Speaker in the last five years, Mondal said, “I tried to be neutral even though it is difficult to judge one’s own performance.”
Recalling the three resolutions moved by the opposition against the government and the Speaker, he said, “These (resolutions) have tested my neutrality.”
Expressing that one thing has upset him the most, Mondal said that the idea of taking a delegation of legislators to witnessed and learn from the proceedings of the Parliament in New Delhi was just the opposite.
“The proceedings could not be conducted as there was lots of shouting till the House had to be adjourned. It has upset (till today) because the MLAs had instead learned the wrong thing,” he said.
He also expressed that he was happy that the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly had not adjourn the House due to want of quorum and attributed it to all members of the House.
By Our Reporter
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