Does sickness have a holiday?
People get sick on holidays and bandh days so is it justifiable for hospitals and health centres to close on a holiday? Well it appears that this has happened in the premier health centre of the North East – the North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS). It is informed that the Out Patient Department (OPD) in NEIGRIHMS was closed during Muharram for two days due to confusion over the declaration of the holidays on Muharram. Initially, the Government had fixed November 14 as the Muharram date but finally changed it to November 15.
Many people questioned the justification to close the OPD of a premier health institute like NEIGRHIMS during holidays. There was also argument that NEIGRHIMS should have at least opened the OPD on November 15 since many of the patients came to get their medicines on this day.
As per reports, hundreds of patients came all the way from the rural villages to NEIGRHIMS for their treatment on November 15 thinking that the hospital was closed on November 14. But since the OPD was closed they had to go back without getting any treatment.
The poor villagers who came with their children had to go back in utter disappointment since they had to spend so much money to come to NEIGRIHMS.
In the name of ILP
The ILP has given many a person the right to suppress the weak. Small tea vendors are particular targets. The other day two young men entered a crockery shop in the city and demanded money from the shopkeeper. They gave no reason but just said that the person has earned enough from here and should share his earnings for the cause. “What cause?” asked the shopkeeper.
Arrey you are here and don’t know what cause we are fighting for? It’s the ILP stupid. The man look scared and cornered. At that time a Khasi lady entered the shop and because she was pottering around for a while the two men had to leave. But it was evident that they were not going to give up that easily.
They returned later to collect their ‘easy’ money. This is the problem with any ‘cause.’ Some people take on themselves the role of guardians of society even when their cause is selfishly personal. From boulder blocked highways to charred cars, from burnt houses to street graffiti, every protest avenue is exploited to the hilt.
But what takes the cake is that educational institution have become the current battle zones. Recently, 9 bullets were recovered near the Principal’s room of a Government run school in Jowai…ILP related case.
The communal string plays loud in the city as well with reliable sources revealing that a city based school too harbours students who are no less soldiers in this war against influx. A student, upon being cornered, reportedly confessed to have scribbled the famed ILP slogans and hate messages in his school desk, targeting the ‘other’ (not of his race) who generally occupies the seat. The childhood we remember was all about fighting for lunch boxes and football fields and never political issues.
Some amateurs go a step further in making uncalculated moves. They ate at a restaurant in Polo and when it came to paying the bills, all they produced was once again…”NO ILP NO REST”!
But for every one shouting ILP there are perhaps 10 others who don’t want it. Their modus operandi was to forge the signature of a Rangbah Shnong in a letter addressed to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi asking her to NOT implement ILP in State.
The amusement continues…
When’s the next bandh/road bloackade?
These are questions that have been doing the rounds since August this year following the breakdown in the ILP talks. So confused are citizens about the dates and timing etc that newspaper offices have become like enquiry counters.
The phone does not stop ringing. A wit who travels regularly between Garo Hills and Shillong said that now she has a dairy to note down the dates and timings of all different bandhs and road blockade timings and where they are enforced for fear of mixing up dates, time and places.
If you have to travel to Garo Hill then the other consideration is also that along Assam some group or the other too might call a bandh or road blockade. So that’s also important to remember. Asked one taxi driver, “Is this the reason why we got independence? What independence? When all the time we are held to ransom by this or that group?”
Well said… Here no one protests against the loss of fundamental rights or even about price rise. The salt crises brought out the worse in us. Instead of getting together to protest the obnoxious inflation each person thought about himself/herself. It’s the height of selfishness and it was so exposed. Yet we continue to harp upon ‘community’ as if we are a happy cohesive whole. Ironic!