Editor,
Permit me to share my experience with your readers about the bizarre ways of functioning of the Shillong Municipality.
A couple of years ago the Municipality decided to construct a building in place of the existing fish/vegetable market in the heart of Jail Road, Shillong and constructed several stalls by the roadside to temporarily shift the market. However, the welfare society of the locality challenged the decision in the High Court and stalled the construction of the new market. Needless to say, the existing market is most unhygienic and an eyesore. Huge quantities of garbage is dumped by the sellers on the road every evening which invites hoards of flies and mosquitoes making the atmosphere most unhealthy. The Municipality contested the case in the High Court for five years incurring huge legal expenses from the public exchequer. Sometime in 2014 the Hon’ble High Court dismissed the Society’s writ petition imposing cost of Rs. 20, 000 on the Society as it found that the petitioners approach was malafide and against public interests. Surprisingly, immediately after obtaining a favourable decision from the High Court, instead of starting the proposed construction work of the market the Municipality chose to demolish the temporary stalls which were raised by spending public money for temporary shifting of the market.
Another case in hand is the demolition notice issued by the Shillong Municipality to some lessees in respect of municipal stalls at Jail Road, Shillong, for a scheme to develop the area. These notices were also challenged by the lessees in the High court which were also contested by the Municipality for over 5 years incurring huge expenses. In these cases also the decision of the High Court went in favour of the Municipality. This was reported in your newspaper some months ago quoting sources that the stalls would be demolished within 21 days. However, as in the earlier case nothing has been done by the Municipality till date.
The ways of the Municipality are indeed baffling. Why are these projects undertaken in the first place and then subsequently fraught with the Court cases? Many believe that someone is indulging in vote bank politics by safeguarding the interests of a few as against the larger public interest.
Yours etc.,
Ibor Sun,
Shillong-2
NGT ban a joke!
Editor,
The NGT ban on rat hole mining has now reached a state of utter confusion, embarrassment and trouble for both the Government and the NGT. In spite of the ban, transportation of extracted coal is going on in full swing uninterrupted and without documents, thereby violating the order of the NGT. Stakeholders truckers and all those who are involved, directly or indirectly in this business have becomes desperate and fed up with the prolonged hearing. Judging from the present circumstances and to avoid further escalations of confrontation between Government, NGT, and coal miner owners, it would be better for the Government and NGT to allow the coal mine owners to pay the royalty as usual. No one has the capacity to pay such a huge amount at a time. In this regard, the Government and NGT had made a mistake. Another blunder on the part of the Government and NGT was that coal should be covered with tarpaulin for environmental reasons but this only gives the truckers the opportunity for over loading. Dust from coal arises only at the time of loading and unloading.
Yours etc,
SG Laloo,
Jowai
Useless Khasi Alphabet?
Editor,
With due respects to S Lamin Khonglah, I emphatically oppose the omission of the letter ‘G’ (pronounced ek) from the Khasi alphabets. Thomas Jones had taken pains to design the Khasi alphabets out of the English or more originally Latin alphabets. It is not alien but we usually avoid using ‘G’ as we find it avoidable. We Khasis have our own way of pronunciation, and so we wrongly pronounce Karo for Garo, Kala for gala, Kilbad for Gilbert etc. we also say prek (peg, nail) using ek with strong short e. In the sample sentences (i). “U Sngaid u shong sbeg ha madan” (ii). “1 theirit I hap preg halor u sohsaw pyut”, we can make out the real use of G. Hence we should treasure this alphabet even if it has minimal utility. We, for good reasons, have always considered Sohra as home of pure Khasi. But nowadays Khasi authors and language experts etc. encourage expansion of Khasi vocabulary and expressions. I believe that in the last century alone we have borrowed quite a few words from outside Khasi and Jaintia Hills, like words in Hindi, Bengali, and Assamese. We should not, cannot throw away what we have got in hand already if we really want to see our language grow.
Are we going to have a second look and recreate (improve) our alphabets as Khonglah suggest? I am strongly of that opinion. Let us introduce letter C into our alphabet. Don’t be jerked. The English introduced some letters in their alphabets in the post Shakespearean period. The C sound is already there in speaking of W. Khasi Hills, Ri Bhoi and especially among Pnars and people of War Jaintia. If you were to try translating the word Chakae (thats the name of the cine comedy produced in Jowai), you would find it hard; for ‘shakae’ would not carry all that is in it. Are we Anglicizing ourselves by inserting C? Not at all!
The ever progressing English language still continues to borrow words from some European and Latin American languages. We shall not lose, we shall definitely gain. For Khasis – for any Khasi – to say that we have nothing to do with the English language, culture etc. it will be wrong to the point of being ungrateful.
Yours etc.,
PK Lakiang
Shillong- 3