Editor,
Apropos the report” State Assembly polls likely in February”, a specific sentence earned my irk. This particular report surprisingly categorizes a festival as a secular or a religious one. Religion, as we perceive, is a way of life and amalgamation of various religions, which is given equal opportunity in a constitutional dispensation is secularism. Differentiating the both is an incriminating offence which deludes the very foundations of our constitutional ideals of granting equal rights to individuals of every walks of life. It becomes highly imperative for your organization to ensure that such kind of diction are scrutinized before publication and any attempt to jeopardize the social fabric of our sweet ‘Shillong’ is avoided
Yours etc.,
Sourik Purkayastha,
Via email
Editor replies: We are only quoting an official. Perhaps they need to be sensitised in the right usage of words to define festivals. But they are not quite off the mark since Wangala or Shad Suk Mynsiem are harvest festivals while Christmas, Eid and Durga Puja are religious festivals.
Baseless allegations
Editor,
Apropos the news item – “Issue of fake birth certificates,” (ST Nov 20,2012) I wish to correct the distortions of facts in the news item. The Certificate issued by the Relief and Rehabilitation Colony Welfare Society, dated Oct 10, 2010 to Mr Sawvik Deb S/O Mr Kamakhya Deb was based on the Register of Births and Deaths (Local Area) of the Relief and Rehabilitation Colony and which is maintained on the strength of the Baby Report at Birth Certificate issued by the Ganesh Das Hospital dated Nov 30, 1994 and the statutory certificate issued by the Shillong Municipal Board, Shillong under Registration No 3238 dated Aug 02 1995, as confirmation only.
Regarding the general allegation of issue of fake birth certificates to illegal migrants by this Society, I strongly refute the allegation because the locality and its people are very alert on this issue. We have tried to deal with the present day menace of illegal migration since many years. In the case of Mr Sawvik Deb, I would like to inform the readers that his father Mr Kamakhya Deb is also a person born at Ganesh Das Hospital Shillong on January 11, 1967. This record is available in the Society’s office file.
In view of the facts stated above the news item that appeared is without any basis whatsoever.
Yours etc,
President
R & R Colony Welfare Society, R & R Colony, Shillong – 6.