Editor,
Apropos to the letter to editor by Micheal Syiem (ST July 13, 2016) where he had made a reference to the perpetual calendar worked out by me with the assistance of my daughter recently, I would like to mention that perpetual calendars have been in existence for several centuries in various forms. There are various perpetual paper calendars, object shaped calendars like paperweight dials etc. and many have even patents. In fact there are perpetual calendars even for Julian calendars before 1582. Though the Julian perpetual calendars differ slightly mathematically from Gregorian calendars, the concepts are the same, that is, they club similar centuries for example the first 2 digits of a century when divided by 4 with remainder zero first group, with remainder 1,2 and 3 the other 3 groups respectively. The second concept is repeating cycle of 28 years. These concepts can be presented in various ways. What I did was to present the concepts using windows software in a user friendly way. My calendar period is for infinity, that is, for any date in the Gregorian calendar. The same can be modified for any limited period say 100 years, 300 years and so on. The size of the calendar will get reduced to less than half for a 300 years perpetual calendar.I have not seen Peter Wahlang’s Perpetual calendar. I should however appreciate the efforts made by him to develop the calendar in the age where knowledge was not easily accessible and assistance of computers was not available compared to todays’ world.
Yours etc., Prashant Naik
Chairman ARRRAC,
Government of Meghalaya
On solid waste
Editor,
This refers to your editorial “Solid Waste management Act 2016” (STJuly 13, 2016). When it comes to waste management in India, little is the way it’s meant to be. Many municipalities simply dump the waste and claim these dumps are landfills. Land-filling should be done only for inorganic wastes and the rejects after processing. Apart from Solid Waste, open defecation and sullage water management are huge problems to Civic Bodies. Improper waste management causes public health and environmental hazards like climate change, air and water pollution, soil contamination, etc. As responsible citizens of this country we must think whether we can do our part to clean up this mess and leave a better place to live for many generations to come. Every household must segregate the wastes at source into biodegradable and nonbiodegradable.We need to learn lessons from Sweden, which is a zero waste country and from Sri Lanka, which is segregating its waste and Bhutan where everybody is conscious to not pollute their land. Public must be warned as to what to do and not to do through media. Yours etc.,
Vinod C. Dixit
S M Road, Ahmedabad
On uranium mining
Editor,
Allegations, counterallegations and name calling seems to be the current flavour between antiuranium activists and groups on one side and the Government along with our Hon’ble MP, Lok Sabha and UCIL on the other. What started as a missive from Mr Pala against the constant reaction of pressure groups for opposing most developmental projects soon graduated towards uranium and UCIL. The major part of West Khasi hills district stretching up to the Garo Hills is majorily underdeveloped from the social and economic view point and the blame equally lies in the myopic view of the MLAs’ and MDCs’ representing the people in the government. The opposing groups should sit and work out a solution as to what form of development they would want to happen not only because uranium mining is the core subject of the debate but look ahead towards other challenges that the future of the ‘ Jaidbynriew’ or the ‘Khasi race’ would continue to face whether we mine or not mine uranium. Uranium mining is fraught with dangers even though UCIL might give us thousands of assurances. So what is the stand of political parties like the UDP HSPDP, KHNAM, NPP, BJP and last but not the least the Congress, is something we would wait and watch as we move towards 2018.
Yours etc..
Dominic S. Wankhar
Shillong-3
Education scam handshake behind the scene?
Editor,
The education scam probe is more than what meets the eye. The High Court (HC) of Meghalaya took up the matter on a petition seeking CBI inquiry since the EKH police has miserably failed to make any headway. The HC later ordered the EKH police chief to submit the investigation progress which in turn is found wanting. One does not really know whether there is a handshake behind the scenes and what is appearing in the local media is only hurling of dusts in the eyes of the public. One also wonders if this scam that broke out in 2009 will ever be solved and justice be ultimately done to those denied. The incumbent urban affairs minister under whose tenure as Education Minister in 2009 this scam shaped up is ironically enjoying ‘oxygen’ in the form of political to legal patronage. Now all eyes are on the HC since police investigation, if at all there was any, only indicates that it bended to the dictum of the ministers and babus. That the EKH police is not approaching the HC to get the original papers, of the inquiry carried out by the CBI vide an order of the then Shillong Bench of Gauhati HC is curious. Is it because the enquiry may open up a Pandora’s box? This is brazenness at its full display and a mockery of policing in the state. Parading some petty thieves and criminals in front of invited local media does not amount to police achievement. Rather cracking the whip and bringing to justice the high and mighty will do much to give a fillip to the dented image of the EKH police. And by the way what is the CBI doing here? Should it not be questioned too since as per the latest petition filed in the HC, despite the CBI initiating inquiry against those involved in the scam, no charge sheet was filed by it? Is it not a laughing stock that despite its findings about the misdeeds of the then education minister only the then Director of Mass and Elementary Education was interr-ogated? Let the rented CBI office at Oakland be vacated and used as a parking lot so that the residents of European Ward gets some parking space for their cars.
Yours etc.
PK Dwivedi
Shillong – 1