MeECL shocks its consumers every month. Though many do not react to its aberrations but some who are alert and conscious raise a voice of alarm. Thank God, the local media comes handy, the Messiah indeed. Yes, a fat bill is one that often gets us freaked out. The erroneous meter reading is the bane of this electricity board. It has recently earned the wrath of the consumer when it has begun to send the bill in a narrow roll of paper. Many have initially mistaken it for our popular archery receipt! One hotelier from Police Bazar quipped, ‘It seems the Board has thought out a new way to mislead the consumer of any likely discrepancies in the bill because, one needs a technical mind to read the whole bill correctly. Moreover, who will bother to read it minutely every month?’
Well, this month’s electric bill has literally sent shivers up and down my spine. I can’t stop myself from finding out what each line meant. After much effort I realized my previous bill’s arrears have also been added up since my cheque had bounced for insufficient balance. Next, I also noticed Rs 500 included as “adjustment”. On enquiry, I was informed by the office staff that “adjustment” is nothing but the penalty for the bounced cheque.
Here one is totally baffled that MeECL should charge a howling Rs 500 as penalty for each bounced cheque. Will it not be a case of grief for average consumers who have to struggle months together to save that amount? Or, does this Board not know that majority of its consumers are dirt-poor. I request the MeECL not to be another Shylock demanding its illegal pound of flesh from the poor consumer.
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali
Shillong-2
Islamia school – wrong claims
Editor,
Apropos the letter by Shakil Ahmed, “Islamia School is public property,” (ST Jan 9, 2015) the undersigned, a retired Head Teacher (LP Section) and founder heir member categorically states that if the writer is well versed in the history of the school then he and his associates should take legal recourse against our family over our legitimate claim and rights over the said school, its property and other related matters on the basis of available papers and records which they might have in their custody. The Founder Family/ Parent Body cannot be trapped by any ploy or pretext. To remove the Founder Family/ Parent Body, of Islamia Secondary School, with its ultimate legitimacy on all concerning matters, the so called well wishers or vested interests should proceed legally against us. It is evident from the Court cases and past records of various Associations, Public Forums, viz, Islamic Education Society – Association, Meghalaya Board of Wakf, Muslim Public Forum, (L) Bashir Ahmed Khan’s Projection as Founder, Islamia Secondary School, Shillong were miserably defeated in the Court of Law. Hence the letter in question has no locus standi and ought to be rejected outright.
Yours etc.,
Sayeed Ahmed,
Founder Heir Member,
Islamia Secondary School
Shillong-1
Baselessallegations!
Editor,
It has become a regularfeature for leaders of politi-cal parties to stoop to mud-slinging against their oppo-nents without giving anyiota of proof in support oftheir baseless allegations.The allegations that BJPhas something to do withthe recent massacre ofAdivasis by the NDFB (S)’in Assam is a glaring exam-ple. People, howsoever il-literate they may be aresmart enough to under-stand the reasons for suchbaseless outcry to win overthe voters. While we can-not discount that fact thatthe NDFB (S) has politicallinks but those who accusethe BJP of having links withthis militant outfit shouldsupport their allegationswith concrete proof. Evensome so- called social orfarmer leaders havestooped so low in this gameof false claim without hav-ing sufficient proof.They will do better ifthey devote their time todoing good for the societythan harm it with their cal-lous attitude of putting oth-ers in the dock with insuffi-cient proof.
Yours etc.
,Himalayan Gaire,
Via email
Malcontent policeman!
Editor,
I wish to draw the atten-tion of the concerned au-thorities through this col-umn about police miscon-duct. On January 2, 2015 asI was coming fromKhyndailad towards G SRoad to pick my grand-mother from a garment storearound 7:10 pm and wasabout to park my car nearSaree Palace, suddenly aing the hijab as empower-ing and derive a sense ofidentity from it, the sameway women of other cul-tures exert their independ-ence and strength throughthe showing of skin. Whyare we so-called liberals sit-ting in our ivory towers cast-ing judgemental looks whenit’s fundamentally a matterof choice?After providing a longand tedious almost socio-logical account of variousIslamic fundamentalist or-ganizations, Mr Thyrniangreiterates that “Islamic ter-ror presents the biggestthreat globally. Theythreaten the existence of bil-lions of people across theworld” and that it is “thebiggest challenge for worldleaders and intelligenceagencies.” I agree that ter-rorism is a global threat butI do not think that the Is-lamic kind is the only one.The United States militaryinvasion in Afghanistan(which started in 2001) andIraq (started in 2003) as wellas the historical invasion ofPalestine by Israel (continu-ing till today) which haveled to the death of millions,in my opinion come withinthe purview of terrorism;the Gujarat massacres in2002 which resulted in themass killings of Muslimsand not to forget the count-less number of fake encoun-ters in the states of Manipurand Kashmir because of thenotorious law – AFSPA areother instances of terrorism,not committed by an Islamicfundamentalist group. Thus, to say that Islamicterror is the “biggest threatglobally” is to accept thatanti-humanitarian crimesperpetrated by non-IslamicState and non-State agen-cies are comparatively lessappalling and hence almostexcusable that mentioningthem in a public article is su-perfluous.Maruti Gypsy vehiclestopped beside my car anda man in civil dress startingshouting angrily at me. Ini-tially I thought he was adrunk but later I realized heis a police personnel be-cause the vehicle bore theML 02 registration. I po-litely explained to him that Iam just picking up some-one. It was one of the qui-etest nights in Police Bazarwith no traffic jam at all.Moreover I was not theonly one who parked onthat road. From Khyndailadto Sani Mandir the roadsideis allowed to be used as acar park after 7 pm. But thisman kept hurling abusivelanguage at me. He evenasked me if the road be-longs to my father. ( Kaneka surok u kpa me?). He or-dered me to leave that placeor else he would show mehow to leave. I obliged anddrove away from there butthe police man would notstop ranting. As an edu-cated youth I was shockedto see how a policeman canbehave so rudely and har-ass an ordinary citizen likeme. This is the first time inmy life when I encounteredsuch a situation, however Ihave no ill feeling towardsthat cop, instead I feel sorryfor him. He has lost my re-spect! Police personnelshould be role models forothers but this particularcop doesn’t even have selfrespect forget being a rolemodel. He is in fact an ill-mannered, rude, arrogant,undisciplined cop with abig, foul mouth. Hope theMeghalaya Police teachesits cadres not only to shootand act boorish but also tobehave with dignity.
Yours etc.
Manny Lyngwa,
Shillong – 1