Election fatigue sets in
In terms of fun and revelry which accompanies every election the Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills District Council elections scheduled for February 24 are the dullest ever, says an avid political observer.
Although candidates call for public meetings in the evenings no one really attends these meetings anymore hence candidates have to bring their party followers from different constituencies to put up a show before the electorate that they have enough people listening to them.
A voter in Laitumkhrah says he knows the Congress candidate, Antonio War and the Independent candidate Phira Ranee who has contested for the nth time but has no idea who the UDP or the HSPDP has put up in that constituency. Funnily, in Nongthymmai area it’s the opposite.
People know who the UDP candidate is but don’t even knbow who is contesting from the Congress or the HSPDP. Can there be a more lacklustre election than this? In fact the campaigning for the KHADC election never really picked up in the city.
As loudspeaker sporting vehicles traversed the city roads giving an impression that there are a lot of supporters inside the vehicles, they were sparsely filled. Is this an indication of things to come? Are people really fatigued by election promises? Or has wisdom finally dawned on the electors that there is life beyond election and that life is getting tougher by the day?
Mr PA Sangma indisposed
It is learnt that the National People’s Party (NPP) leader, and Tura MLA, Mr PA Sangma is unwell and is admitted to a hospital in New Delhi.
However, family members are unwilling to disclose anything or to comment on the nature of the illness. They say it is nothing serious. The NPP does not seem to have any interest in setting up candidates in Khasi and Jaintia Hills for the District Council elections although it calls itself “National.”
We are yet to hear of the NPP setting up any candidate for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat. In the new scheme of things, as the nation progresses towards the 16 Lok Sabha election no one is talking about the NPP. Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, Jayalalitha’s AIADMK, Laloo Yadav’s RJD, the Telegu Desam, the NCP and Sharad Pawar’s kite flying episodes are the talking points across the country and in the national media but we are yet to hear a word on the NPP. So is PA Sangma now being reduced to a leader of Garo Hills only? It is also unclear as yet whether Sangma will himself contest the Lok Sabha election from the Tura seat or whether his son Conrad Sangma will take the plunge? Or will Agatha Sangma continue to represent the people of Garo Hills in Parliament? Many question marks, no answers.
No law, no governance
When this paper carried a report that the parking attendants in all the parking places under the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) were not issuing tickets after collecting the parking fees from vehicle owners, the SMB said that parking attendants would have to wear uniforms and a name badge from February 1, this year.
It is now almost the end of February but the errant behaviour continues. Vehicle owners have to literally demand the parking tickets which are given after some delay. For the parking attendants it has become the rule not to issue a ticket for the money taken. Giving a ticket is an exception.
This is enough to tell us about the sheer governance vacuum in the SMB, nay in the entire Urban Affairs Department.
Said someone, “If they cannot even ensure compliance of parking attendants then how can they exercise their authority over the entire urban Meghalaya.”