By H.H.Mohrmen
Off late the MUA government has become the target of criticism from all directions. The government has been criticized for the failure of MeECL and it was also lambasted for not implementing the National Green Tribunal order banning rat hole mining in the state. Dr Mukul Sangma the Chief Minister is suddenly at the receiving end. With regards to the MeECL failure to provide uninterrupted power supply to their consumers, a letter to the editor in this paper censured Dr Mukul Sangma for blaming almost everything under the sun except his good self for the problem the state is facing today. Again on the same issue another writer in the same column compared him to his party’s arch rival Narendra Modi for treating the people of Meghalaya like L.P. school kids by trying to fool around with us.
Yes, not all the people of Meghalaya are LP school students but government LP Schools in the state are not in good shape either. In fact the government LP schools are only a shade better than cow sheds. In the past one month we visited at least four villages in Jaintia hills to promote farmers’ club and organize financial literacy campaigns for the rural folks in collaboration with NABARD. The programs were both held at the government LP Schools of the respective villages. The condition of the village school can only be described as pathetic. Generally the structure of most of the school is such that the entire school is housed in one room or a hall and all the classes are held in the same hall with no partition. In many cases; (depending on the size of the hall) the classes were divided with a distance of not even arms length apart from one another. I cannot help but admire the teachers who teach in these schools with open classrooms and manage to simultaneously teach their respective classes without disturbing their colleague who is teaching in another class with just an imaginary partition dividing the classes.
If we are to admire the teachers’ ability to teach in open classrooms without disturbing the next class in the one open hall school, then we have to equally admire the ability of the kids studying in these one hall schools with no partition to learn their lessons despite all the distraction. I think the students in these government LP schools are exceptionally brilliant. I wonder if there is one smart kid in these schools having extraordinary ability to listen, then he can simultaneously learn two lessons by sitting in one class. If he is studying in class III and his class is adjacent to class IV then he would be able to learn the lesson of two classes in the same period, courtesy the open classrooms. The kid does not even have to eavesdrop because the classrooms are open. This is the condition of the government lower primary schools in the villages.
The Education department now also has the problem of LP schools where tainted teachers used to teach and which are now running with a disproportionate teacher-student ratio. After the services of these teachers were discontinued by the government, there are many cases of lower primary schools especially in West Jaintia hills which were left with two or sometimes even one teacher to cater to the needs of the entire LP school in spite of the fact that these schools have a substantial enrollment. One can imagine how a single teacher can manage to teach the entire lower primary school which has classes I-V and we haven’t even asked what will happen to kids if the lone teacher decide to takes a day off. Now these schools are operating without the full teaching strength for over a month, ever since the services of the so called tainted teachers were terminated. One month is a long times for school children. How long will the students suffer for no fault of theirs? Does government care about the future of the children who are studying in these schools?
And as if the Education Department does not have enough problems in its hand, the fate of the students studying in RMSA Schools is also in jeopardy because of the failure of the Department. In 2013, the education department ordered all government Upper Primary Schools in Jaintia hills to upgrade to secondary level as per RMSA but without appointing any additional teachers in the upper primary schools. Government upper primary schools like Senior Basic School, Jowai, Saw Lyngdoh upper primary school, Mowkaiaw, Barato upper primary school, Tarangblang and Mynso government UP schools were upgraded to secondary level as per directive of the Education Department and for one full year the additional Calls IX in all these erstwhile upper primary schools operated without any additional teacher. In 2014 Class IX students of 2013 were promoted to Class X thereby adding another class to these government RMSA schools which have a staff strength of Upper Primary Schools. In March 2014 the education department appointed only one teacher to these schools. So now the school have one teacher to teach two classes i.e. class IX and X. The students of these schools under the leadership of the JSU hit the streets to protest against the Education Department’s apathy toward their plight but to no avail. Till now these RMSA schools are still operating with a single teacher, and the current Class X students of these schools are due to appear for their SSLC examination next year. The pertinent question is – Is the government concerned about the future of the students in these schools? If the government is not concerned about the future generation then what does it care for?
Does the government even care about the future of the State? If we are to believe the report in the press that the government is planning to appeal against the NGT ban on rat hole mining, then it is obvious that this government is not concerned about the livelihoods of the people who live down stream of the rivers like Myntdu, Lukha and Kupli. This government does not even care about the future of the State and its people. Does the government need any more evidence to prove that these rivers are dead when its own MSPCB has conducted a test on the water of the river Lukha and NEEPCO has similarly tested Kupli.
It is also pertinent to ask why the government is not implementing the NGT order when the Order clearly states that it should be implemented immediately. Isn’t this a case of violation of NGT order by the state government? The Tamabil Land Custom Station not only violated NGT order by allowing export of coal from this station even after the order, but the LCS has also violated the Supreme Court order which prohibits trucks carrying more than 9 tons of load.
The Government is ready to fight for the right of the coal mine owners but neglects the right of the people who live down stream of these rivers. Why does the state still depend on the central government when we are major exporters of coal and limestone? Isn’t it true that coal mine has no impact on the economy of the state because we still depend on central government’s blessing for everything that the state needs?
The result of the general election is not even out yet and the MUA has shown its true colour and it looks like the Chief Minister is already nervous. One cannot help but wonder what will happen to Meghalaya a state which depends entirely on the central government’s financial support when the power in Delhi changes hands? Let us just wait and watch what the future will unfold for this tiny hill state.