By HH Mohrmen
The first half of the maiden sitting of the ninth assembly is over and none of the seven representatives from both the east and the west Jaintia had raised their voices on issues pertaining to the welfare of the two districts. Shillong West MLA Paul Lyngdoh has once said that Jaintia hills does not have a voice in the Assembly (ka Jaintia kam don tynghung ha Assembly). This statement seems to ring true even in the present House! .
Of the seven legislators elected, Robinus Syngkon, Justine Dkhar, Hopeful Bamon and Stephenson Mukhim are first timers in the Assembly. Of the four first timers; three have had no experience as public representatives. Only Stephenson Mukhim had a brief experience representing War West as its MDC in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council. But even in the Council, Stephenson rarely took part in the debate during the Council’s sessions. Robinus retired as the District Transport Officer and both Hopeful Bamon and Justine Dkhar were retired school teachers. The only silver lining in the list of seven MLAs from Jaintia hills this time around is that unlike in the previous term, only one MLA has not completed his matriculation. The other three are Congress legislators who retained their seats and need no introduction.
Once again, it seems like no one is going to speak on behalf of the districts in this Assembly too. Of the three Congress legislators, two are accommodated in the cabinet while the Congress MLA from Raliang was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary. The remaining three MLAs have been appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries and only Hopeful Bamon has not been accommodated by Dr Mukul Sangma but surely his name will figure in the list of political appointees which will be announced soon. Obviously any possible dissenting voice from the district has been systematically shut up through the politics of co-option.
Last week based on RTI findings, news papers reported that in the five CHCs of the two districts, health department has installed only three X-ray machines worth Rs.7.75 lakhs each in the three CHCs. Unfortunately; the machines remained non-functional since the day they were installed. The 300 MA X-ray machines were purchase by the Directorate of Health Services from SIEMENS LTD and the same were installed by the suppliers at Nongtalang CHC on December 9, 2000, Khliehriat CHC on December 6, 2000, and Sutnga CHC on December 7, 2000. Sadly the machines were not used even a single time and the people have not benefitted from them. The machines have remained untouched in the different CHCs. Now after the lapse of 13 years the department is considering replacing the old unutilized machines. The department has not only wasted public money worth Rs. 23.25 lakhs but for 13 years it has denied the people particularly those in the rural areas, the services that they are rightfully entitled to. Government’s big talk of providing health care to its citizen in the rural areas becomes an empty promise as the people in the areas where the CHCs operates still have to travel to Jowai to get themselves X-rayed.
How many more years will they have to endure the hardship of getting their X-ray done elsewhere, depends of how soon the government can make the replacement. But the question is who is responsible for the entire mess and the corruption? Is the government not going to order an inquiry into this gross negligence? Are we going to allow all those responsible for this mess to go scot free? When the government is not able to provide even simple X-ray machines to the CHCs, can one expect it to install sophisticated machines in these CHCs? This is a very serious issue and one would expect the MLAs from Jaintia Hills to raise the issue in the House, but none of them deemed it necessary to do so.
While our MLAs in the assembly are keeping their opinions to themselves, the MP from Shillong and former Union Minister of State for water resources, Vincent H Pala, while talking to the journalists in Parliament urged the central government to waive two per cent excise duty levied on coal. One wonders from where Pala got the information that the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had given a concession for coal mining in Meghalaya as a goodwill gesture in view of the state’s unique land tenure system. Arwat Challam an environmentalist from Jowai through RTI had sought information in this regard. In reply to his RTI vide letter dated 23 March 2010, S. Sohtun Public Information Officer Directorate of Mineral Resource Meghalaya, enclosed a letter from the Ministry of Energy dated July 2, 1987 which states in point number 2 that “as regards other traditional mining which has been done by the tribals all these years, we have no desire to interfere with their customary rights and practices; this can continue under the guidance of the MMDC. The letter addressed to the then Chief Minister of Meghalaya Capt W.A. Sangma was signed by Vasant Sathe the then minister of energy government of India and has categorically stated that mining should be done under the guidance of the MMDC. The letter further stated that the Coal India Ltd would be willing to give any assistance or advice that the state government may require for carrying on mining on a scientific basis and keeping in mind the safety and health issues.” Obviously the state government has never approached the CIL assistance or advice in this regard.
Pala is on his last lap as the MP of Shillong. No wonder he is lobbying for the coal miners and even spoke on behalf of the cement companies when he said the imposition of 2 percent duty on coal will increase the cost of coal and this will in turn have a huge negative impact on the cement industry. Is our MP more concerned about the cement companies than the welfare of the people who live in the areas where the industries are located?
Pala is more concerned about the coal deposits in the state which is estimated to be about 600 million tons, the largest deposit being in Jaintia Hills. But he did not say a word about the rivers that are polluted and rendered lifeless due to unscientific mining. Neither did he mention about the farmers who lost large tracts of farmland to mining. The interests of the people who live on the banks of the rivers are of no significance to our MP and providing alternative livelihoods to those who lost their livelihoods from fishing to dead rivers is not in his scheme of things. Even during his tenure as the minister of state for water resources; Pala has done nothing to help reclaim the rivers in Jaintia hills like the Myntdu, the Kupli and the Lukha which were affected by acid mine drainage.
Miners in Meghalaya have not paid any tax (other than those paid by common ST citizens). They should at least be proud to pay the two percent excise duty. One would expect the honourable MP to lead from the front and encourage coal miners not only to pay excise duty, but also pay income tax because many of them earn lakhs of rupees per month and have wealth worth crores of rupees, but instead they were discouraged to do so.
It seems in our MP’s priority list, the interest of the coal miners takes precedence over all other issues and problems like interstate boundary dispute, influx issue, opening of border haats, and even the interest of the farmers remain secondary to him. The question is who is going to speak for the interest of the people?