Editor,
Of late Shillong is fast becoming the centre for all sorts of Fairs, Exhibitions, Music Festivals, Fashion Shows and Melas. This is a good trend as it provides an opportunity for the public from all walks of life to know and witness for themselves new innovations and things displayed during the events. They also provide information and education for the people (individuals, organisations and firms) and of course they should be allowed to freely organise such events, this being the state capital. However, government patronage and sponsorships for such events ought to be highly selective and strict procedures ought to be followed to regulate various government departments. But it is disheartening to note that in the name of organising this government sponsored events those in-charge of organising them make huge cuts for themselves at the expense of the public exchequer. There are many examples of such events organized in the recent past. By organizing these government events many officials have made their fortunes and managed to own assets worth crores of rupees. This is corruption of the highest order and is unacceptable to the public.
The Government ought to be very strict on these officials by laying clear and strict rules and guidelines to control the day light robbery of public funds by many directors, heads of departments and district functionaries. It is also disgusting to know that those at the helms of affairs are collaborators to these acts of robbery of public funds. We call upon the public to raise their voices and put a stop to these camouflaged events.
Yours etc.,
George Arthur Warjri,
Philip Marweiñ,
Phira Rani &
J.T.Lyngdoh,
Don Bosco Past Pupils Association,
Shillong-3
Telecom sector, dismal
Editor,
Both the erstwhile UPA and the current NDA governments have failed miserably in dealing with the issue of call drops across the length and breadth of the nation. My personal experience in calling India for both business and family purposes has been extremely negative. Some days, a single important communication could not be completed with as many as 5-7 call drops and frequent interruptions. Is this is the face of a globally emergent India with huge financial promises that could not even assure a simple call being completed without interruptions and call drop problem? The overseas image of the nation is painted in absolutely negative light. If the Make in India objective has to be successful, the nation still needs huge overseas investments in areas like infrastructure, telecommunication, information technology, electronics, automobiles, real estate, marine engineering, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, education and research and other emergent areas. Tiny nations like Nepal, Bhutan or even the Maldives have better telecommunication networks than India. It is a great shame that the government and the telecommunication and electronics industry failed to resolve the issue with top priority.
I refuse to believe that this is due to connectivity problems as a result of less number of towers as indicated by the telecom companies in India and by the government. People overseas sincerely believe that the telecommunication companies in India including the very big names and brands are extremely corrupt and with covert support of the successive central governments they are continuing to cheat the public. This is an intentional, human influenced problem to harass the public and to make big money by forcing them to call repeatedly with new recharge money being deducted every time a fresh call is made. If the situation continues without any resolution and any strong action being taken by the government against faulty companies, the nation is certain to lose out in the long run on Direct Foreign Exchange and international tourism. One other important issue that I would like to raise is to shut down a useless organization like BSNL with such poor record of maintenance of landlines across the nations. What is the point of providing fat salaries to a bunch of useless, incapable group of service providers who could not even ensure bare minimal requirement of smooth running of land lines in the country in the 21st century? The amount wasted on BSNL can be used in covering other important social sectors like health services. Useless staff and an incapable management should be shown the door by the government as these people are sucking precious government resources and taxpayer’s money without doing anything towards improving public service. This need to change right now!
Yours etc.,
Saikat Kumar Basu,
Lethbridge AB
Canada T1J 4B3