A Tribute to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly
My MLA Strongest!
Mawlai MLA, Founder “Strong” Cajee has lived up to his name. He displayed his showmanship in the premises of the legislative assembly.
The act is unprecedented and the people of Mawlai this scribe spoke to refused to believe Cajee’s version that he was ‘defending their honour’.
A city based psychologist says, those who have used strong arm tactics in the past find it difficult to give up the habit. Many of the pressure group leaders in Meghalaya are known to use their fists as a show of strength on the powerless.When they graduate to legislators they retain the native traits of ‘might is right.’
Several well meaning citizens on the contrary feel that the State Assembly premises should have a room for yoga so that the MLAs can let off steam when under stress.
But they also wondered how the MLAs could doze off when the Sangma brothers and their beta-noire the Chief Minister raised their voices to unheard of decibels.
Their comment, “The sleeping MLAs must be suffering from severe sleep deprivation and need urgent medical treatment.”
Time to ban uncle chips and plastics for good!
Mr C Sreenivasan the Vellore Clean up man who is in the city to do a survey of Shillong’s mounting and stinking garbage and filth informed media persons that the aluminium lined packages for Uncle Chips, Lays and all the other junk food are not recyclable.
“As of today there is no technology anywhere in the world to recycle aluminium lined packages and carbon paper. If buried under the earthy their will kill the soil and render it infertile forever,” Sreenivasan said.
This energetic environmentalist visited Umkhrah and was shocked that the small five-foot wide drain is called a river. In his typical accent, (Kolaveri-D style) Srinivasan said “In Vellore when we talk of river we are talking of several kilometers wide water body.”
But the sarcasm is not lost here. Who has encroached into the Umkhrah if not greedy individuals with no accountability to anyone? Sadly, even the peoples’ representatives have actively connived in the “killing of the Umkhrah.”
But there is no power like the people’s power. Its time for the citizens of Shillong to reclaim their lost voices and their right to clean rivers and water systems.
Assembly
The recently concluded budget session was an exercise in semantics. Some of the core issues remain untouched. This is the year of youth but the Youth Policy is nowhere in sight.
The Mining Policy is still laying eggs in the Secretariat. It would have been informative to know from the Minister in Charge as to the reasons why Meghalaya’s Mining Policy is suffering repeated abortions. Why did the opposition which is basically NCP-led not take up this urgent issue?
Interestingly this is like a one-man army executive, many observers feel. “Why should the chief minister have to reply to all questions and rise to defend his colleagues all the time?” they query. Every minister should have done his homework and be prepared with supplementaries.
A minister cannot lose his cool. In the same vein the opposition members are not expected to be shrilly and accusative all the time. Maturity is what this legislature lacks. Gone are the days of statesmen.
Quipped one political observer, “These are the days of rabble rousers. The Opposition prefers to kick the players instead of the ball. That’s a major foul in football and would have warranted a red card. Unfortunately there is no referee in this game of political one-upmanship.” Well said!