Editor,
Addressing a one-day seminar on “electoral politics in the state of Meghalaya” held at St. Edmund’s college on 4th August, 2012, the Hon’ble Dy CM Mr. Bindo M. Lanong, lamented that money power has taken over electoral politics in Meghalaya and, I suggest, he should have said “in the country (India)”. He also said, “In my opinion, an elected representative should be a graduate”. His opinion would be unexceptionable were it not for the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of the term graduate: the dictionary definition of the term is woefully inadequate to satisfy every shade of opinion. Having crossed the graduate line himself, he ought to know that.
Mr. Bindo M. Lanong himself is currently embroiled in a controversy over the appointment and subsequent extension (by two years) of the service of an executive engineer in a department under his ministerial port-folio, on which I do not wish to dwell. I mention it only to draw his attention to the inadequacy of graduate-ship as a yard stick for determining the quality of efficiency that can be expected of a person. It is possible that he would explain away his part in it by saying that merit was the only consideration in the case; whether it was so or not. However, he also ought to know and disclose how that merit was discovered.
My experience is that a graduate is not necessarily a fit person to represent the people of a constituency. The need is for persons who, in any language, can read and understand what they read and can speak and write fluently to express what they know, whether by objective observation or by subjective reasoning. Our graduates/scholars today may have a string of the letters of the Alphabet attached to their names, by virtue of just holding a piece of paper certifying their academic status, but may be woefully lacking in the minimum qualitative characteristics expected of such a status.
For ensuring that suitable persons are short listed for participation in electoral politics, he may find it necessary to have an entrance test like the JEE, the Civil Service Exam etc. to screen candidates before accepting nomination in an election. All prospective literate candidates – whether graduates or not – should take the test without exception. Let us not forget that there were highly regarded and, supposedly highly qualified persons with several degrees attached to their names who had held high sounding designated posts in or out of governments but had failed to leave worth-while imprints/footsteps on the sands of time.
Yours etc.,
Morning Star Sumer,
Shillong-2
The great power outage
Editor,
The editorial “Superpower India goes powerless” (ST Aug 2, 2012) is interesting. The power outage affected not only the people but cost India Incorporated Rs 2000 crores in manpower losses. The losses call for ramping up power production. The power sector in the country have not kept pace with a fast growing economy. Another factor is that the SEBs are in a sorry state of finances in the country having a combined debt of Rs.2,00,000 crore. SEBs are there just to keep themselves running, forget about investing in further capacities. This is a wake up call for the policy makers in a country where 40 crore Indians are still living in the Dark Age.
The former Union Power Secretary, E.A.S. Sarma has appropriately pointed that one disturbing aspect of India’s power planning is that there is greater emphasis on adding new generation capacity than directing investment towards improving the operation of existing power plants and strengthening the transmission and distribution system. Sarma pointed out to the need for reliable high voltage transformers and their proper maintenance as well as protection of equipments that respond automatically to crisis and are not manual. Sarma also said the instead of addressing the real problems – technical, commercial and institutional, the centre and states are trying to divert public attention with a mutual blame game that leads us no where. Merely changing ministers in such a major disaster is no solution.
I agree that Meghalaya should be thankful to Myntdu Leshka HEP Stage I for freeing us from darkness to be in the light. But we need not be complacent in a situation where our installed capacity is a mere 185 MW while the requirement of power or should I say ‘light’ will soon touch 1000 MW. Power is a key element for economic growth, therefore Meghalaya’s 3000 MW power potential has to be quickly harnessed and the present survey and investigation of HEP of 804 MW in six locations of the State should be accelerated by any means.
The editorial to some degree is right in dubbing China a Superpower in the making as far as investment in power projects is concerned. In terms of Gross Domestic Product China is now number two next only to United States of America. However, the Communist Party run Global Times in its editorial on Thursday mentioned “the widespread power black out across India holds lessons for China which is beginning to grapple with its own developmental bottlenecks”. The editorial further added “India is stuck in a dilemma, but China is also facing a developing bottleneck.” China’s per capita electricity consumption is still much lower than the level of developed countries, but the public is demanding the same living standards enjoyed by rich countries.
Overdrawing of power by the northern states in India may have led to grid failures. But the bigger picture is power dilemma – low generation capacity, political agendas and theft adds to power woes in our country.
Yours etc.,
VK Lyngdoh,
Via email