Staff Reporter
SHILLONG, Mar 09: Within two months of reallocation of Portfolios in the MUA government by the Chief Minister Dr D D Lapang, in order to render more effective services to the public, the well-intentioned exercise is found to be futile much to the dismay of the major coalition partner, namely the Congress party, since a lot of grievances have been aired by majority of the population and shared by many Congress workers and sympathizers.
According to the information received, there is a lot of resentment in the Congress camp over the functioning of the coalition partner, in charge of PWD (Bldgs) Minister, (Lone KHNAM Legislator from Jaiaw), Paul Lyngdoh, who had been stripped of Urban Affairs Department in the said reshuffle, and alloted PWD (Bldgs). Nonetheless, he continued to rub wrong shoulders in his new department, which he is holding for the last two months.
It may be recalled that, PWD (Bldgs) was taken away from Dr. Roytre Christopher Laloo and given to Paul. The latter, on taking charge, had cancelled all the contracts awarded by his predecessor, which have not only put Laloo in a quandary, the resentment of the contractors have acted like an agitating agent for the Congress Camp to demand for his immediate removal.

The present MUA government has to face a lot of criticism on the murky affair which led to a lot of misunderstanding among the coalition partners, Congress being the leading one and feeling gravely hurt at the dictatorial attitude of the lone member in regard to the leasing of the prime land in the heart of the city by the Meghalaya Urban Development Agency (MUDA) to H M Cements, a private enterprise.  
The recent agitation by the Shillong Municipal Employees Association had spelt out the random appointment in Municipality Board and MUDA during the tenure of Paul. The government has to pay, through its noses due to overstaff. Besides that, the authority concerned have no answer to justify the demand of such appointments will remain as a scar to the MUA government led by Dr Lapang.
It is also learnt that, the authority is contemplating to constitute an Inquiry into the multi crores scam in the PHE urban sewage and drainage system, in which the department of Urban Affairs is involved, where anomalies in executing the schemes are alleged. It may be added that the construction of sewage and drainage was a whitewash affairs being carried only on the outer top surface with nothing under need, yet claiming to be totally new construction and for which the bills have been paid accordingly. This is causing a lot of loss to the state exchequer.