Editor,
Last Saturday, back on my way home to Shillong from Pynursla, suddenly a deep fog covered the road from Pynursla to Laitlyngkot. All vehicles plying the road experienced problems of visibility; some of them had to stop while many drove with double signal. Road markings especially the centre broken white lines are missing. These road markings and road lines are usually found along the road or across the road to warn drivers of hazards and to give drivers a direction. Also these lines are used to provide a visual divide between cars travelling in opposite directions. All roads use this dividing line to avoid accidents.
But what I experienced this Saturday while returning from Pynursla is that many parts of the road mainly at Rngain upto Laitlyngkot does not have the dividing lines. Why are the authorities blind to this? Isn’t the PWD putting people’s lives in danger? Are there no PWD engineers or staff passing on this road?
I urge the authorities concerned and Mr Prestone Tynsong the MLA of the area who said that he is ready to work with the devil for development, to see this devil’s road (I mean road with no middle line marking), does not cause accidents and that it marked with while lines. Who will take responsible if anything happens?
Yours, etc
Lewis B. Lyngdoh,
Shillong 10
Citizens have a duty !
Editor,
We keep reading about the dismal situation of the sanitary conditions of Shillong. However, we as inhabitants have a duty to perform and that is to persevere in our endeavor to keep the town clean. So if “you see something, say something” and in this case please click a photograph of offender/vehicle committing the offense of throwing garbage and send it to the CEO Shillong Municipal Board at his WhatsApp number # 9436115861.
“If you see something, say something” should be our motto as citizens.
Yours etc.,
Maureen Shabong
The Modi magic
Editor,
Apropos the editorial “Perils of exit polls” (ST March 11, 2017), the Prime Minister may have been accused of campaigning as if he is the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh but the gigantic effort that he put in with BJP workers and well wishers, paid off while pollsters like Times Now-VMR, India Today-Axis, ABP News-Lokniti, India TV-CVoter, India News-MRC and Today’s Chanakya failed miserably in their predictions. The victory of the BJP in UP and Uttarakhand is outstanding. The Narendra Modi magic is working. So out of the total 690 Legislative Constituencies that went to the polls, the BJP secured 61 percent of the seats while Punjab saved the INC’s face with the party drawing only 20% of the total seats that went to the polls. However Manipur and Goa tell a different story and were up for grabs until the BJP cashed in quickly. The BJP performed exceedingly well in Manipur from 1 Assembly seat to 22 seats while the Congress is down from 42 seats to 27. There’s the paper work and booth management where 10-21 party workers in every polling booth numbering 1, 47,401 booths work with unstinted commitment. The total number of workers that the BJP managed to operationalise was 13, 50,000, a huge number on the ground and of course brand Modi worked.
It has now been proved that Modi is by far India’s most credible politician. His charisma rivals that of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, who remained popular for decades despite glaring failures. The BJP will remain the dominant party in India for a long time. And those who do not like it or its policies must face up to this fact. Liberals today struggle to cope with the reality that Modi has captured the high moral ground, and can sneer at liberal critics while the crowds roar approval. His demonetisation on 8th November 2016 shows that he is the only politician serious about catching the dishonest and transforming the status quo. Let us not forget that Modi in 2002 did not forget his mother’s advice “Do not take bribes,” and when he took over as Prime Minister, he did say that “He will not take bribes nor allow others to do so”. Now that UP has been won with a massive mandate it would surely pave the way for re-election of Shri Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in 2019
Yours etc.,
VK Lyngdoh,
Via email