Editor,
Apropos the report, ‘Prostitution racket busted in city, (ST July 13 2012) it is known to all that Raju Barua has been running the flesh trade in his ‘Hotel Galaxy’ right in the heart of the city for quite some time now. It is not even hundred metres away from the Sadar police station. There are two religious places – a masjid and a mandir not even 50 metres apart on both sides of the hotel. Around the hotel there are several residential and business houses. The building belongs to one Mrs Heerabhai who is related to the famous Goenka family of Shillong.
We have a municipality without whose license no business can run in the city. It can also cancel the renewal of license for indulging in illegal trade. We have scores of NGOs some of whom often draw newspaper headlines for conducting “raids” in Iewduh to trap traders doing business without license.
Raju Barua is an employee of the Customs and Central Excise Department in Shillong. Despite that he has been running a flourishing prostitution racket with impunity by enticing girls both local and from the neighbouring states. Barua it appears is above service/municipal rules, NGO surveillance, the timid locality and the heads of religious places.
Barua will be out on bail and back to business till another routine raid by the police. Is Meghalaya encouraging sex tourism through Raju Barua’s ‘Hotel Galaxy’?
Yours etc.,
A J Das
Shillong – 1
Orchid Lake Resort – a shame
Editor,
On July 10, last my two friends and I visited the Orchid Lake Resort. We were hungry and to our relief a snack bar was available in the campus. We ordered chicken chow, one egg roll and three coffees but the food served to us was far from being edible. The chow contained not chicken meat but the peels of chicken skin which was not properly cooked. The noodles had a foul smell and were served in a small steel quarter plate. I confronted the staff but they said, “Everything was just cooked.” I found the kitchen in a dismal state, dirty and disheveled and I am sure there are rats running around. I request the authorities concerned to please spruce up the kitchen and let the OLR live up to its name. If the Government cannot run it then let it outsource the facility. This is a common destination of tourists but all of them are disappointed by the food. tourists everyday.
Yours etc.,
Nathaniel Fancon,
Shillong- 6
Assault on the media
Editor,
This is in response to the editorial “Under attack”(ST 18 July, 2012). Murder or shooting in broad daylight or in busy areas is perhaps an every-minute/second occurrence in this great land named India! Thus though such gory news is unfortunate to the extreme, it has failed to shock due to the “enviable” regularity. However, when a highly respectable journalist, who also happens to be the Associate Editor of the reputed Arunachal Times, gets shot at by miscreants a chill passes down our spine. If personalities like Ms Tongam Rina are assaulted in such cold-blood, then the insecurity of common folk can easily be deduced.
The administration of Arunachal Pradesh should nab the culprits immediately and the judiciary should award capital punishment to them and the conspirators who are behind the brutal attack on her. People who don’t respect the human rights of others should also not expect human rights for themselves. Only extreme punishment like hanging to death for all murders and murder-attempts will deter the criminals of India from even thinking of nipping the precious life of anyone.
Let’s pray to the Almighty that the brave and upright Tongam Rina emerges winner in this hour of crisis and continue to enlighten this bankrupt and rotten society through her mighty pen and noble deeds.
Yours etc.,
Kajal Chatterjee
Kolkata – 114
Tinted car windows
Editor,
With due respect to the law and the concerned department who are to enforce the law, I am utterly surprised to see vehicles with tinted glasses still plying on the roads and that too right on the nose of a traffic policeman who is just a mute spectator. Is the law applicable only to a few and for a limited period only?
Yours etc.,
Frederick Dkhar,
Shillong -21