Govt on holiday
As usual, the Meghalaya government departments are wearing a deserted look a week from the dawn of 2013. Empty rooms, tables and chairs adorn every office.
With the biometric identity card in place, many who wanted to enter the Main Secretariat could not do so because the guy who is responsible for operating the biometric machine was also enjoying an extended holiday. Most Congress ministers are either in Delhi or on holiday or in their constituencies.
Meghalaya continues to hibernate long after Christmas and New Year. What a bonus indeed to be an employee of the Government of Meghalaya.
During the Durga Puja season too, there was almost a week of no work. No wonder people are willing to pay huge amounts to get inside the benevolent umbrella of the Government of Meghalaya.
It’s a lifelong security and when an employee dies in harness his/her next of kin gets compassionate posting even if the guy died of alcoholism! It’s amusing that when a Government driver dies, his wife gets a peon’s job, never mind if the Department needs a peon or not.
This is Meghalaya and this is where the bulk of the State’s finances are invested – in non-productive manpower; actually in dead wood. And this same group is also the least loyal(namak haram) and ever ready to observe a bandh, no matter who calls one.
With such employees the only way Meghalaya can go is down the drain. Time for Government to think of contract employment!
BSF- Good Samaritan
The BSF headquarters in Umpling is surrounded by residential areas. Since the area suffers acute drinking water problems, the BSF provides one tanker to supply water to the residents. Here is one act of benevolence that this correspondent witnessed.
The residents of each household put out their containers and drums and a BSF person fills water for them from his tanker.
There are uniformed personnel everywhere in this city but none have gone out of the way to provide any services to civilians.
In fact the relations between uniformed personnel (army, air force, police) and civilians has always been adversarial. People resent especially the manner in which the drivers of military vehicles drive and park where they are not allowed to.
The BSF has perhaps adopted this as a way of attracting young men to join the service.
Jaintia Hills landscape
It’s a familiar sight if one travels to the coal belts of Jaintia Hills. This picture tells a graphic story. The mounds of coal, then the earth gouged out to make way for these hillocks of coal amidst the disappearing forests is what the landscape of Jaintia Hills is all about. Then there are deaths of coal miners deep inside the recesses which are never taken seriously.
The latest tragedy is of five miners who were actually done to death by a coal trailer. Does the Government have a conscience? Government cannot get away by saying that coal mines are privately owned and therefore it has no say in the matter. What affects large numbers of people adversely is no longer private. It is political….