Landline bills
Customers availing BSNL landline services have not received their bills for the last six months in certain areas of the city.
Call it callousness on the part of BSNL or India Post – which delivers BSNL bills at customers’ letter boxes – in the month of July customers received bills for the last six months in a row. The landline services have also been barred in these areas for non-payment of dues.
In these areas the BSNL consumers could only receive calls but not make calls. There is also an interruption sound whenever one receives call over the landline. It is learnt that this interruption sound is created for non-payment of dues.
But the sound is indeed peculiar. It sounds like someone is passing water. Coming back to the billing issue customers now have to dish out big amounts suddenly for the last six months at a given date else their landlines will be completely barred.
These customers would be penalised for no fault of theirs but because of total laxity on the part of the PSU which was sleeping for six months and has suddenly awakened. Is there no justice for the BSNL subscriber?
Bad roads in the city
The Quinton Road is a pathetic sight with drain water running atop the road which now resembles a paddy field. All the water from homes, hotels and other business establishments is flowing on the road and no one seems to bother.
Then there is Laban with several ill-maintained roads and water problems. To top it all is the road to Khlieh Iewduh over which there seems to be multiple jurisdiction and a lot of buck-passing over who the road belongs to and who should repair and maintain it.
Considering that Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) collects a substantial sum of money from hundreds of vehicles per day, the least it can do is to repair that stretch of road which is not more than a kilometre in length. Why is it that some constituencies are better managed than others?
Laitumkhrah and Nongthymmai constituencies get regular facelifts. But the road to NEHU for instance is paved with bad intentioned potholes and gets brief makeovers (like women who get dressed for a party) only when high profile visitors enter its premises.
Who are Govt Depts accountable to?
Are government departments accountable to themselves, to the Chief Secretary and Chief Minister? The Directorate of Mineral Resources (DMR) was invited to the Citizens Conference on Environmental Governance (CCEG) to pool ideas with other departments whose activities or the lack of adequate safety measures impinge on the environment.
While all other departments attended because they recognise that in a democracy citizens too have a voice the DMR evidently owes its loyalty to mine owners.
After all many of its staff whose duty it is to regulate the function of the department including collecting the necessary royalties and giving out carriage challans for a certain quantum of coal carried per truck are allowing excess carriage but charging the minimum amount. Most are minting money for their personal needs.
Someone has to document what sort of homes some of the employees of the DMR live in. It’s one sure sign of corruption eating into the vitals of the Department and the State as a whole!
If the Chief Minister means well he should do a dry cleaning of the DMR Department sooner than later.