By Patricia Mukhim
The topic above was what engaged my mind this whole week. But I must admit that my views changed somewhat on seeing the initiatives taken by Richa Dwivedi and her team of volunteers to streamline the awfully, chaotic traffic and unruly drivers of Shillong at its vantage point – Khyndailad. Along similar lines the efforts put in by members of Youth4change to collect 9700 names for the Save Taraghar Campaign is worth a million appreciations. The petition has since been sent to the President of India, the Prime Minister, Minister of Environment and Forests and Sonia Gandhi. Then on Thursday morning I got a call from Farida Warjri, lecturer, Social Work Department, St Edmund’s College that she had got her students to Khyndailad to attempt the gigantic task of managing garbage. Hurrah and three cheers to youth power!
It is so refreshing to have a bunch of youth who are not into armchair protesting but who are willing to get their feet dirty to clean up the mess we have created for this lovely city. It is also very exciting to have an Urban Affairs Minister who does not mind posting herself near the public garbage dump at Laitumkhrah Market and telling those who are ruthless enough to throw garbage at the place after the Municipal truck has left, to pick up their plastic bundles and take them back home. This, I suppose is what an MLA’s/minister’s task is. To get down to brass tacks and lead the way! Unfortunately many of our elected honourables travel in such style and are so isolated from the problems of the people that they no longer see the mess around them. Good for you Ampareen! We hope your department unlike the beleaguered Sports department or the PWD or the PHE departments is not starved of funds so that together we can think of a better waste management system. It’s good to remember that passion also needs the momentum of cash!
Talking about sports and the much vaunted football ground for the I-league matches, isn’t it time for all of us to start donating to the cause considering that Government understandably is cash-strapped? Sometimes I wonder why the moneybags that fund the destabilisation game in Meghalaya do not put their money for this noble purpose? If coal and cement money is what makes and breaks governments then should we not target this clientele for the only football ground we have to showcase to the world. Let’s not say that coal money is black and cement money is grey. Money is money and there’s Gandhi on the notes who is the ultimate equaliser. So let’s tap the coal and cement cash if the Government does not have any ego hassles. But come to think of it, isn’t it a shame that a super power like India cannot give money to its vassal state for putting up a high-tech football ground? Does Montek Singh Ahluwalia not know that we need a Class-1 football ground? If he did, he would have generously given Meghalaya a few more hundred crores! After all what’s a couple of hundred crore here or there? The trick is to know how to beg, that’s all!
Now coming back to Shillong and its garbage I must admit that I do my bit to clean up the nearly one kilometer long public street adjacent to my house. But you can pick up all the Lays and Uncle Chips packets and the liquor bottles dumped into the drain and within an hour they are back again from a fresh batch of littering maniacs. I live in Dum Dum a sub-locality of the Lumiablot Dorbar. Today this once quiet, clean and serene locality is a miniature edition of Manipur (of districts Ukhrul, Senapati and Churachandpur). There are more students and families coming from the above districts of Manipur than there are local people. These parachuting residents (who come by the hordes every morning and shack up with friends in small little rented rooms which have no space for disposing organic, degradable garbage like vegetable peels, left over food etc) are here to study. That’s what they say but many do not even attend classes. Their parents are too far away to monitor what their kids do. And their community elders in Shillong, I guess are too busy pursuing their own business to keep a check on their co-villagers. So it’s a free for all existence. The Dorbar keeps a sign board as in all other localities, asking residents not to litter, get drunk or commit nuisance but it is in Khasi, as if the law-breakers are all locals! So much for Dorbar common sense!
While other localities keep a strict watch on the goings and comings of these temporary residents, in our locality there is no such supervision. So we do not really know who has comes and who goes, who is a student and who is a non-student, who is here for employment and who is simply whiling away time. Above all we do not even know who is peddling drugs or arms. I am not being overly suspicious but when people are not gainfully engaged in their studies and do not have any known source of income but are seen indulging in all the earthly gratification then there are grounds for suspicion. But no one cares and no one wants to be intrusive. The house owners are happy so long as they get their rents. And by the way, none of the house owners live in Dum Dum. They only come to collect their monthly rents so they cannot be bothered if Dum Dum goes to hell.
Incidentally we have some of the more enlightened citizens residing in Dum Dum. There is Mr John Kharshiing, spokesperson of the traditional chieftains of Ri Khasi Jaintia. We have several medical doctors, engineers, professors, lawyers, a senior geologist, an MCS officer and a newspaper editor to boot! But we are caught in a bind and do not know what to do with the civic management. There is a truck that is supposed to come and pick up garbage on Tuesdays and Fridays but the timing is so flexible that people have to wait at least two hours for it to arrive. Sometimes it does not come. Those who have other responsibilities cannot wait. So they leave their garbage bags by the side of the road hoping that some Good Samaritan will throw it into the garbage truck. But that seldom happens. More often than not the truck defaults and the garbage remains by the side of the road and is torn part and scattered around by street dogs. It’s actually shameful to see this!
But our locality is not the only one suffering from this terminal disease of garbage. All of us must admit we really don’t care anymore. We have all given up because we don’t know where to start. There is no leader to champion the cause for better civic management. Of course we have leaders galore to say why we should not have elections to the Municipal Boards. But is an elected civic body not the sine qua non for proper civic governance? Sometimes I am left wondering why people are so insecure about their positions. Why do the traditional institutions resist the idea of an elected civic body? Can we live forever with the insecurity and paranoia that someone is going to upset our apple carts? I think this whole resistance to civic polls needs to be analysed more closely to find out whose vested interests are threatened here. As long as we do not have a functioning Municipal Board the problem of garbage and bad sanitation will overwhelm us. Who do we blame for this mess? Someone has to take the blame. We citizens can only do so much. We need a system in place. Once a system is there we can follow it or be fined for violating it. At present there is no system at all! That system has to be created. It cannot wait any longer.
If we believe that Shillong is our home and not just a paratrooper’s paradise then we ought to speak up and create a public furore. It is no longer feasible to allow a small group of people to hold us to ransom because of their own personal fears and insecurities of losing their present clout. People are elected to the Dorbar to serve us, not to be permanent fixtures there without delivering the goods. We cannot have a 21st century
State run on 18th century models of governance. Unless we take the bull by the horns Shillong will collapse under its own weight and all of us along with it.
Young people this is your opportunity to speak up. The future is yours after all!