By K L Tariang
Three days before Meghalaya celebrated its 45th birthday this year , Shillong Times came up with a news headline “Middle aged M’laya still at infancy in terms of development.” Sounds illogical but going by the age logic we may be comfortable with the thought that some older and major states in the country have not universally developed much either. But Meghalaya is a small state with a small population though with a large number of representatives in the state legislature as well as in the District Councils who through their efforts down the years could have reasonably uplifted us favorably by now . But if there are disappointments because of indefinable signs of adolescence or if signs of maturity are obscured , then the newspaper may not be far from the truth,
Development initiatives in the state have, however, been there throughout and there are some positive results. But it seems that deliveries in most areas are haphazard or far from measurable. Perhaps besides other things, inadequate policies in many areas or lack of roadmaps often are the main reasons for the lapse. Inconsistent development paradigms take precedence instead because of short term tactical policies which change with every change of government leading therefore to intangible outcomes.. Grandiose plans were however initiated by this present government in recent years hopefully out of collective thoughts to ensure a certain degree of their continuity and are not of unilateral decisions which can easily be overturned with change of leadership.
it would perhaps be mere political rhetoric or somewhat biased if someone stated that it is centre’s indifference towards the state that deter our development and even reproaching it for not retaining the status of the state as a special category state for our social upliftment. Development funds did pour in from the centre since we attained statehood and till now .We have sufficiently exploited our abundant natural resources and mostly without restraint though the potentials would have favored healthy growth . We also inherited from our predecessors some of the best facilities and significantly we were relatively already a progressive people at the time we attained statehood. If in spite of these healthy mixes , we still insist on special treatment till now then we may move into a chronic condition of dependency which can ultimately affect our quality of life and of those after us .
It would have understandably caused great excitement when it was reported that a study revealed that Meghalaya in 2014-15 had emerged as one of the fastest-growing states in the whole country with favourable growth rates and that another study also revealed that the state had emerged as one of the most competitive states. Instead these reports raised many eyebrows as if to infer that there is something amiss in these studies.
The scepticism probably arises out of the perception that the overall pace of change here is excruciatingly slow , that potentials have not been effectively utilized , that the income generated has been unequally shared and that some of our social indicators leave much to be desired . There is the fear of the possible irreversible deterioration of our natural assets and disappointments with the worsening situation of some government created assets.
There is still wide dissatisfaction with the availability and quality of many public services and over the dearth of employment opportunities There are continued constraints somewhere which should otherwise be scarce by now while unrest in some areas lingers. Moreover the expansion of human capability which in turn allows further expansion of resources is yet to be sufficiently manifested here Furthermore , democratic engagements which can foster participatory growth are either ignored or minimized . Amidst all these perceptions , pessimism and cynicism certainly prevails.
Nonetheless one hopes that with introspections we can learn from the past to effectively build up the future. While everyone has a role to play ,the responsibility is certainly more on those whom we have chosen to represent us . It is only hope that during time out or intervals in the frequent struggles in the the political gamesthese chosen players concentrate to evolve the much needed policies and strategies to lead us to a reasonably good life now and ever . Those who represent the state especially need to focus more on this . After all, in the words of Aristotle, “The state exist for the sake of a good life, not for the sake of life alone”.