Was it raining vegetables?
In recent times carrots have been selling at Rs 100 a kg. Even the cauliflowers was priced at Rs 80 a kg.
But we are talking here of the most expensive market in town, namely the Laitumkhrah market. But surprise surprise!
Last Thursday vegetables were being sold like trinkets in a flea market.
Most of them were selling at Rs 10 for a particular weight. They had all been pre-weighed and kept in plastic bags.
Consumers had a whale of a time and many picked up several packets of the same vegetables saying they would keep then in the refrigerator.
Naturally the news spreads very fast and people rushed to Iewduh to pick up their quota.
This scribe tried to ask the vendors why the windfall and the sudden fall in vegetable prices but they refused to share their secret.
Later it was learnt that the vegetable carrying buses and trucks had arrived too late to catch the “challan market” that takes away all the vegetables out of Shillong.
The buses and trucks were caught in a traffic jam somewhere in Sohryngkham.
When the shoppers learned of this they said, “ Why don’t we have a traffic jam of this nature every once a week? It serves us well!
Law is only a three-lettered word
Despite the traffic jam that invariably makes driving past the Shillong civil hospital a nightmare, Tata sumo public carriers continue to pick up passengers from that point and thereby create a jam.
Traffic police know these Guwahati-bound Sumos should not be soliciting passengers from that point since they have been told to park at Polo but they break the law with impunity.
But this is not the only problem that pedestrians face. The street vendors who crowd on the footpath leading to the Civil Hospital too are a menace but no one seems to be able to tackle them.
The whole business of removing the hawkers and their return to the same old place has become a joke in Shillong. It’s a case of spring cleaning once in a which and business as usual the rest of the year.
No wonder many find Shillong such a livable place.
Where can you break the law and get away with it but in this paradise of defaulters?
Prince of the road
The trade mark red bus named the Shillong Public Transport Service (SPTS) and their small brothers the maxi taxis are the latest offenders on the road. These dragons bearing the Government number plates behave like they own the road.
They drive like crazy and stop wherever they want, even if they cause a long jam behind them.
Of course the passenger is to be blamed for halting them anywhere they want but why are these buses and taxis not observing the rule of picking up and dropping passengers at designated embarkation and disembarkation points?
Were these points not clearly demarcated by previous Deputy Commissioners?
Why is it that the law changes with a change of guard? Perhaps an alert citizenry is the answer to many of these problems as the state chief minister keeps reminding again and again.
