WHEN a Department of the Government violates the basic norms of justice and equity then the entire Government must be held to account. News that vacancies in the Soil and Water Conservation Department have been filled surreptitiously is alarming because it suggests that nepotism in the Meghalaya Government is alive and kicking despite the existence of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Minister in charge of the Department has summoned the higher officials of his Department but the person responsible for the arbitrary appointments was ostensibly missing in action. It would be interesting to watch the development on this issue over the next few days. It is a fact that Government consistently violates its own rules and notifications or does not have the teeth to implement them. Backdoor appointment of the kith and kin of politicians and bureaucrats is commonplace in this country. Hence some institutions/departments have many more workers than they have jobs. In fact one of the prime reasons why some of the public sector institutions in Meghalaya have gone bankrupt and had to close shop is precisely because they had become dumping grounds for failed politicians and/or employment agencies for political party acolytes.
An example is the Shillong Municipal Board which is on the verge of collapse and bankruptcy because every Minister for Urban Affairs treats the SMB as a fiefdom for employing people from his/her constituency. In terms of employment within the Government, fairness and justice are a far cry. Those who are employed are done so because they have powerful strings to pull or because they bribed someone in the State Service Commission or because they are family members of those who wield power in the Government. Even education is not free of this malaise. Admission into government institutions like Pine Mount School are done so at the bidding of the Education Minister! Is it any wonder that people have reached the end of their tether and that some are wielding the gun to get back at the Government? Yet successive governments learn no lesson. It is important for media to expose such nepotism and for civil society to pursue such matters doggedly and to ensure that the guilty are punished.
