By Eric Calvin Ranee
NONGPOH: Twenty long years have passed since the creation of the Ri Bhoi District as a district out of East Khasi Hills but it still lingers behind in many aspects and progresses with a hope that one fine day things will be different and change for the better.
It is ironic to state that neither the State Government through the Arts & Culture department nor the elected public representatives from the district which included two Chief Ministers of the State deemed it fit to establish a public library for the benefit and welfare of the students and the public in Nongpoh, the district headquarters. A brief interaction with people of the village brought out their view as they emphasized on the need of setting up a public library in Nongpoh considering books being the source of knowledge.
One Class X Student said, “Nowadays what we get from the text books are insufficient and therefore we need to do research from other books but here in Nongpoh we have nowhere to go as we do not have a public library and moreover there is only one cyber cafe in Nongpoh and most of the time there is no connectivity.”
A retired government official said that he now has so much of time that if there was a public library he could go and relax and read newspapers and books to pass his time. A group of school teachers said that it would be a very good thing if a public library was set up which could be stocked with books on all subjects and equipped with internet connectivity so that the students can carry on their projects.
A group of unemployed educated youths said that if there is a library then it could help them prepare for jobs and competitive examinations as they can go through latest journals, newspapers and magazines and books on various subjects.
The strange fact is that Ri Bhoi does not have a public library despite it being a district but Sohra Civil Sub Division has a public library of its own which was set up by former chief minister and local MLA of Sohra (L) Dr. F A Khonglam ten years back and this itself speaks volume of the calibre of the elected public representative.