With a new year setting in, fresh and new hopes sprung up amongst the citizens of the state who hoped to see a brighter year ahead with good governance and better development besides ensuring the safety and security of women.
Interestingly, this year being the year where every citizen of the state gets a chance to elect their representatives to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, the intensity of anticipation for a better Meghalaya doubled.
In the words of the 28th President of the United States Woodrow T Wilson where he quoted “Prosperity is necessarily the first theme of a political campaign”, is itself a stance which only goes on to say that the important thing the people expects is ‘Development’.
When cross-questioning a section of people of the city, the main resolution which came to the forefront is ‘Better leaders for a better Meghalaya’ while expecting them to quit talking and make false promises but start implementing them so as to gain the trust of the majority.
Recently, NEHU Vice Chancellor Prof AN Rai said the most important thing which the government should take note of is education while stating it as a tool to eradicate many social ills even as toning down the level of drop-outs in the state.
Whereas, Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum Chairman (MTDF) RG Lyngdoh hoped that the government would follow up on its various initiatives which included capacity building land the likes. He also said this is a good chance for the people to realize the importance of having good leaders in the society.
Meanwhile, a student raised the issue of rise of crime against women stating that the in the previous year, violence against the fairer sex is alarming which seriously required immediate attention.
“If we see such things in the news every day, we as young ladies would probably think twice before coming out of the house”, she said.
The young student also added “If girls are unsafe to move around, then what is the use of having the police, the women commission which pledged to protect its people.”
Criticizing the mentality of men, she said “why do we have to become victims of their heinous crimes, why can’t we live in peace and enjoy the same rights? Discrimination still persists till date; the same issue has been discussed at length but no concrete solution has been gathered till date.”
Meanwhile, speaking on the development front, Director of IIM, Shillong Prof Keya Sengupta has reflected on the sad state of affairs of Meghalaya with regards to urbanization stating that the whole city of Shillong is an urban slum. “We notice that there is an unplanned urbanization in the state of Meghalaya”, she said.
Hence, despite many loopholes, yet expectations are high.
The expectations of the people include the need to reduce the gap between rich and poor, social vigilance to check crime against women, a strong anti-corruption body and better work culture among others.
Like an American author Henry David Thoreau says, “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.”
(By Ibankyntiew Mawrie)