The toll gate at Umling which is set up to recover the cost of constructing the Shillong-Jorabat four lane highway has been operating for about a month. In that single month the rate collected from commercial vehicles has been hiked by Rs 5 for smaller vehicles and an equivalent percentage for trucks etc., Earlier the rate for one tourist taxi both ways was Rs 85. Now it is Rs 90. For a single journey it was Rs 55,; now this has shot up to Rs 60. Trucks are charged a whopping Rs 280 for a one-way journey and Rs 510 both ways. This must be the highest toll collected for plying on less than a hundred km of road, anywhere in the country. It is learnt that the extortion racket is in full swing and there are several groups and individuals who see this toll gate as an easy way to make money. They allegedly include politicians, policemen, pressure groups, village authorities et al. To survive, the toll gate contractors have no option but to pay the amount demanded by each of these rent seekers. So a road constructed out of the Indian taxpayers’ money has become a soft target to be fleeced by free-loaders. These are signs of a failed state. Actually a strong government should have dealt with this issue head-on but the Government of Meghalaya hardly has the credibility to stand up for what is ethical. In fact, ethics is divorced from the day to day functioning of the government.
Then comes the ban on the sale of liquor based on an Act that the Government has been sitting on for a while and which it suddenly decided to implement. The Act says that a wine store should be located 200 metres away from educational institutions, religious institutions and hospitals. For a city of only 100 sq km to expect each of the 107 wine stores and/or bonded warehouses to be located 200 metres away from the above institutions is not tenable. Already there is a lot of livelihood squeeze on account of the ban on coal. Now with the ban on sale of liquor many more livelihoods are imperiled. Should the government not be thinking of these realities? Or is this another rent-seeking attempt from wine store and bonded warehouse owners? The state has 39 bonded warehouses and more than 600 wine shops, of which, at least 314 wine shops have been affected by the notification. The Government has to give a better explanation than that of implementing an Excise Act which clearly has no locus-standi in a city where many of the wine stores pre-existed the educational or faith institutions or hospitals.
