Editor.
Through your esteemed daily I’d like to share with your readers my views on the drift of policy making in the state of Meghalaya. The policies in the present set up are not designed for future growth but are suffused with gross infirmities and imbalances. We expect our government to work for a well-balanced economic development for all, growth and security for the state and its people at large, a bright future for our children and the generations after them. Unfortunately, Dr Mukul Sangma’s pro-people programmes that held promises of good governance at the start are slowing down. In fact, they are making a U-turn. The policy decisions taken by the state government recently are bound to land the state and general populace in utter disaster.
I cite a few examples. The Mining Policy as approved by the Cabinet is not a policy for the common good. It is not designed to protect illegal mining. On the contrary, it merely gives the mining operators a legal handle to run their mines freely as they please. The so-called rat-hole mining system will continue, notwithstanding the common knowledge that it is inhuman and unsafe, because, as the Minister, Mining and Minerals, said, “There will be war if it is banned.” On the other hand, FDI in mining is welcome and obviously encouraged ‘as the investors will bring in new and modem technology’, meaning ‘open cast’ mining on a massive scale. The impact of the Policy is clear. Our beautiful, green landscape will be permanently scarred, forests and trees will disappear, rivers and streams will dry up or whatever water that remains will turn toxic. There will be neither fish nor farms nor fruits for the non-rich. Who, then, benefit most from this Policy? It is clear that the mining lobby is running our government by proxy. Soon we’ll have a government of money-bags, by money-bags, for money-bags! By these measures and a series of amendments, our land laws and culture, guaranteed under the Constitution, are eroded and coming to naught and the Constitutional safeguards and the 6th Schedule painstakingly prepared by our dear departed leader, JJM Nichols Roy, are going up in smoke. Further, with such freedom and ease to large and foreign companies to enter mining operations, their activities will not stop at such mundane minerals as coal or limestone, but they can enter the uranium mining as well. There will be no law to protect our land, for our own people will have altered our traditional laws as established by our forefathers and safeguarded now by the Constitution. It is a nightmare scenario. Meghalaya will soon be impoverished like most African countries. That Continent is endowed with rich and rare mineral deposits. But, alas, its people are starving and dying of strange diseases. Foreign companies are swooping on Africa. Their heavy machineries are turning up the soil and digging up and carrying away the precious minerals like gold, silver, manganese, diamonds, and rare minerals like ‘coltan’ (columbium+tantalite), which is used in high-end mobile phones and laptops. The bulk of the wealth goes to the companies who pay handsomely the local leaders, the gun-toting rebels or guerrillas or the militia, while the general population is starving.
Another reliable indicator of the powerful influence of the coal barons, the cement companies, etc, is the way the Chief Minister is handling the influx crisis. Even though he admitted that influx poses a grave danger, he refused to seal the borders of his own state. He simply constituted two high powered committees to submit their recommendations; a delaying tactic usually resorted to by authorities when they want to avoid taking a decision. Meanwhile, the borders continue to remain open as the immigrants are being intercepted everyday by the NGOs or the BSF. Most of the immigrants are bound for the coal mines in Jaintia Hills. Do you see the direct link here? Not only the coal mine owners, but the lime stone mine owners, the Cement Companies. some contractors and businessmen are involved in this racket because they save on labour cost when they employ the illegal immigrants. While leaving the border wide open, the CM cheerfully opened railheads at Mendipathar and Shillong. His priorities are upside down. If our government is really serious to effectively tackle the influx problem and discourage infiltration they should, to start with, adopt a 2-pronged attack on the entry illegal immigrants, viz, (i) seal the borders effectively against infiltration, and (2) raid the mines in Jaintia Hills and round up the illegal immigrants. But the big question is, ‘Would the government go for it?’ The answer to that question will reveal who’s the real boss, especially if the reply is, “That ain’t gonna happen!”
The above measures adopted by the government cannot be viewed as developmental measures, because they grossly benefit only a few. We want to make it clear here that we want development and rigorous economic progress for all and not only for a few. We want a policy that would alleviate poverty, banish ignorance and offer good education and quality of life for one and all, without ravaging our environment and our rich heritage.
Yours etc.,
Jimmy Lamlin.
Shillong – 3