Editor,
I have been visiting many restaurants and eating joints in and around Shillong city and particularly in Police Bazar area. I have found majority of the restaurants serving food in a very unhygienic condition. On many occasions I have discovered foreign particles in the food which also included dead insects and human hair. I wonder what the Public Health Department is doing and why they do not regularly check these premises especially the food production area. Perhaps the health inspectors need some technical training on how to how to carry out on the spot inspection and fine the person/persons found guilty of not selling food fit for human consumption. Recently I visited one of the famous sweet meat shops in Police Bazar famous for its jalebis. The restaurant was in bad shape. Food was served by shabby looking waiters who were emanating foul smell. Plates, glasses , forks , spoons etc were all covered in grease and the sink looked as if it has not been cleaned in ages. I even found human hair in the food that I ordered. Most of the tables had food debris which I am sure must have been there since ages. My question to the authorities is (a) Is the owner legally or morally not responsible for providing clean and hygienic food to customers ? (b) Where are the authorities who are responsible for carry out random checks on such establishments in order to ensure that public are not taken for a ride ? Remember folks, Meghalaya is fast becoming a tourist hub and if we want to take a step forward in this direction then we will have show that we mean business.
Yours etc.
Rajesh Swarnakar,
Via email
MeECL – a failed PSU
Editor,
If there be any person, business house or corporation that needs to be kicked out of Meghalaya, my first choice would be the MeECL
There has never been even one day that this corporation has given customer satisfaction to the consumers of the State. When we lodge complaints about power failures, the aggrieved consumer ends up listening to the shortcomings and problems that the MeECL is facing and the reason for the power failure. If there is proper maintenance and quality work going on, there can never be any reason for such sporadic power failures through- out the year.
The myth about the shortage of electricity whenever the level of water in the dam decreases is an absolute filthy hogwash which the MeECL feeds into the minds of the people of Shillong knowing how gullible we are. Please! Electricity is not generated like cooking rice in a pot of water that the rice will burn when the water dries up.
Let us humour MeECL by agreeing with them when they say that that there is not enough water in the dam and therefore electricity cannot be generated but as the only electricity distribution business corporation here in Shillong and as consumers, we expect them to have an alternative source of power at hand to supplement whenever its hydro-electricity fails so as to maintain continuous supply of electricity to us the consumers.
As consumers we have never contested nor protested whenever MeECL hikes up the tariff. Rich and poor, great and small, everyone pays the same. The time has come for us to invite other electricity distributors and give MeECL a run for their money.
The suffering and the inconvenience due to power cuts cannot be tolerated anymore. MeECL must not be allowed to dictate our studies, our work, our cooking and even our leisure timings. This is not the day and age of nine to five jobs; we now work on our jobs at odd hours especially online with the onset of internet but having said that, as consumers who pay high electricity bills despite the fact that we are enjoying electricity produced here in our land, MeECL owes the people un-disrupted power supply.
Their maintenance score is below zero level which can be proven by the rate at which their transformers burst one after the other in each and every locality the whole year through. It is believed that their transformer oil is in great demand and highly used in many welding workshops. If MeECL “engineers” are well qualified and dedicated, the corporation would have run smoothly and would have given the consumers full satisfaction.
I suggest to the people of Shillong to file an RTI against the MeECL . Let us find out how much money they collect per annum from the people of Shillong as electricity bills and how much of that money is utilized for maintenance of our power supply here in Shillong.
I encourage students and their parents to sue the MeECL if you fail in your exams because you could not study due to the power cuts by MeECL Let us create an awareness so that in future no corporation or any person or company will take advantage of the consumers of Shillong like what the MeECL is doing.
Yours etc.,
Len H.
Shillong – 8