Editor,
Apropos the letter “Teacher or tormentor” that appeared in your esteemed daily on July 26, 2012, I as a parent, fully endorse the views of the writer. St. Edmund’s School is going from bad to worse; both in respect of students as well as teachers. One can see students smoking while in school uniform, a thing unheard of in the past. The quality of teaching has dropped to new levels – teachers who are not conversant with a subject are teaching that subject in higher classes. The Computer subject is in a bad state. Ever since one teacher left in the beginning of the year the students are at a loss as they cannot understand what is being taught by a senior teacher with more than 20 years experience. She has absolutely no class control and is not fit to teach the higher classes. This problem is further compounded as her knowledge of the subject is totally suspect. It makes us parents wonder why the School administration is still persevering with this teacher. It is impossible that the Administration is not aware of the problems faced by the students but nothing is being done about it. As a result, in addition to Science and Maths, the students now have to rush for Computer tuition also. It is high time the Administration looks at the motto of St. Edmund’s School – facta non verba – “deeds not words”, and does something about the state of affairs in the school.
Yours etc.
Name withheld on request
Kokrajhar violence
Editor,
The recent violence and loss of human lives, in Kokrajhar, Assam is most unfortunate but it was bound to happen. The danger is that such violence could spread to Meghalaya as well. It is all very well for the Home Minister and Prime minister to say the borders are sealed and that the border fencing work is in progressing. But the ground reality is that there are innumerable pockets in the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border, through which, one can coolly walk into Bangladesh from Meghalaya and vice versa, without any eyebrows being raised. I invite the Home Minister of India, to come to Garo Hills as an ordinary citizen and we can both together take an afternoon or evening walk, across the border to Bangladesh, without any hitch. The international border is as porous as that! So much for border patrolling!
Today the main road starting from Garobadha to Phulbari via Singhimari resembles Bangladesh. The land on both sides of the roads is now completely occupied and controlled entirely by people of a particular community. If one ventures into the interior of these areas one can see that buildings have sprung up. None of these properties are owned by the indigenous tribes of Meghalaya. Non-indigenous populations and immigrants have made inroads into our tribal areas. As a result the Garos who are an indigenous tribe of this region have been totally marginalized. To make matters worse, both the government and our own tribal politicians are doing nothing about this, ostensibly because these are their vote banks. In fact it is our own unscrupulous tribal politicians along with equally unscrupulous officials who have sold us out. Just the other day a non tribal friend of mine told me that he can get a patta with the right amount of money. In fact, today any non tribal or a non- indigenous person can simply walk into the office of the Garo Hills District Council (GHDC) and obtain a seemingly legitimate patta over a tribal land, if he has the right connections and money. And this is happening despite the standing rules of the GHDC which stipulate that land cannot be transferred to a non tribal. So how come they are in possession of land pattas and more importantly, who are those unscrupulous elements that have issued these pattas if not our own tribal politicians and members of the GHDC in cahoots with unscrupulous officials? They have actually sold us out. These unscrupulous politicians and officials need to be identified, prosecuted and exemplary punishment should be meted out to them and they should be summarily rooted out from our society.
The infiltration by foreigners, i.e. Bangladeshis and the surge of other immigrants into our land, has now reached alarming proportions. I won’t be surprised if in the next 5 or 10 years, you have a Bangladeshi or a non- indigenous person or an immigrant, becoming the Chief Minister of Meghalaya. No doubt we are a democracy and a nation with diverse cultures. We need to create a sense of belonging to the nation and oneness amongst us. But this cannot be done at the cost of indigenous Garo tribal identity. There are many instances, where non tribals and others, have taken refuge in the surnames or identities of the Garos, by merely filing affidavits before judicial officials. This is unacceptable and is against our customary laws. Such actions must be viewed as an infringement on our indigenous Garo tribal identity. Such “benami” tactics must be discouraged, disowned and disallowed, because these unscrupulous actions are corrupting our indigenous tribal identity. The Kokrajhar bloodbath is a wakeup call to all our NGOs and elders. We must wake up and ensure that our land and identity is protected. After all, this is the legacy that we must leave behind for our children and this is how it should be, always.
Yours etc,
Urikar Sangma
Proper hawakhana,
Tura