GUWAHATI: Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik has requested the Centre to allot a house to him post-retirement.
Speaking at an event in Shillong on Wednesday, Malik said although he had served as an MLA, MP, minister and now Governor, yet he did not own a house. He said he had requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to allot a house to him following retirement.
In a veiled attack on the Narendra Modi government, Malik said if he were rich, his house would have been raided by agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax department and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“If I had wealth, Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax department and CBI would have come to my house and I would have been scared,” he said.
A critic of the farm laws, Malik said poverty had been his strength and he could fight the high and mighty of the country.
Recently, the Governor had hinted that his days in the post could be numbered for his criticism of the Centre on the farmers’ issue but he was not afraid.
He had asked the Centre to keep its promises made to the farmers even as he asserted that he could take on the PM and the Centre on the farmers’ issue because he lived in a one-and-half room house in Delhi. He also said that he did not have any enmity with the central government.
Speaking at the programme in Shillong, Malik criticised the central government for its alleged lack of focus on the education sector.
He said India could produce only 12 Nobel laureates while the universities in the USA and England have plenty of such winners. He said nothing could empower a person as much as education can.