By H H Mohrmen
Elections to the State Assembly are just round the corner and the season for foundation stone laying ceremonies, inauguration ceremonies, tall promises and distribution of knick-knacks is here again. The tamasha will last until the Election Commission announces the elections to the august house, but the question for the MUA and its partners in the government is – what has the government achieved in the last five years? Can we see (if the government can provide us ) the report card of this government’s achievement(s) in the last five years? This question is especially pertinent from the point of view of Jaintia hills which has sent seven representatives to the Assembly and most of them have not even spoken a word in five years.
Of the seven legislators that the people of Jaintia hills have elected; only three occasionally took part in the debates in the house; two of them are cabinet ministers whose only contribution to the debate is to reply to the member’s questions and nothing more than that. And the other member who intermittently took part in the debate was Hopefull Bamon. In all the sittings of House in the whole five years, you can count the number of times he spoke in the within the five fingers of your hand.
In circumstances like that what can we expect from our leaders? Hence it is safe to say that the two districts of Jaintia Hills were not only neglected by the present MUA government, but even the legislators that the people elected have failed them. Primarily, this is obvious from the fact that the state Government has done nothing to alleviate the plight of those affected by the mining ban in the coal mining areas. The Government not only failed to comply with the NGT directives to come up with regulatory mining mechanisms which will not have harmful consequences on the environment, but it has also done nothing to provide alternative livelihoods to the people who lost their livelihoods to the mining ban. And did any member from the district bring this matter to the notice of the house? The answer is an astounding ‘No.’ All the seven MLAs and even the two who represent the two constituencies in East Jaintia hills have not said a word on this issue.
In fact East Jaintia hills district is at the receiving end of this Congress-led MUA government because the condition of the roads in the different parts of the district particularly those in the Indo-Bangladesh border and the Saipung area are pathetic to say the least. And still the minister in charge of border areas department has the gumption to state in the House that everything in the border is hunky-dory. The newly created District still lacks many basic necessities and it is a known fact that Saipung development block functions in name only.
East Jaintia hills now has two colleges, both privately run; one by the public and the other by church and there is no polytechnic or ITI to provide skills training to the youths in the entire district. The question is how can Government provide skills training to the youths when there is not a singles ITI or Polytechnic in East Jaintia hills?
Jowai, the capital of West Jaintia hills has not seen any development at all, and if there is any change that occurs, it is the construction of few approach roads if that can be called development. The town has functioned with a Municipal Board which is in a severe financial crunch because the MLA who has represented the town since 1983 has thrown his own baby out with the bath water.
Now with the NGT order hanging like a Damocles’ sword on the head of the District Administration coupled with the MLA who has abandoned the Jowai Municipal Board, it is the people of Jowai town who will have to suffer. Also because we have an MLA who does not even care if the Municipality exists or not, one can’t help but wonder if he even cares how people dispose their waste? Does it even cross the legislator’s mind that he too generates waste and contributes to the problem when he occasionally visits Jowai? Can we live in the present world and call ourselves educated when we do not even have proper waste disposal system?
In the more than three decades that Dr R C Laloo had represented the prestigious Jowai constituency, no institute for professional studies has come up in the town or in the district either; even the only government college remains as it is since before he was first elected. In spite of Dr Laloo holding the education portfolios several times, the college still suffers from many inadequacies which compel the students to hit the streets on a regular basis to demand what is rightfully theirs.
Now Dr Laloo has made an announcement that the Government will very soon inaugurate the B.Ed College in Jowai, but what is new about this? For those who are not aware B.Ed College in Jowai has existed in the nineties and it functioned from the premises of the Kiang Nangbah Government College, but for reasons best known to the Government and Dr R C Laloo who represents the area then, the college was abruptly closed. Dr Laloo will now give the college its second lease of life and rather than taking credit for that, he should explain to the people of Jowai why the institute disappeared then?
About the river Myntdu, Dr Laloo had time and again claimed that he knows better about the river than anybody else because he had successfully guided a PhD scholar who studied the pollution levels of water in the river, but what has he done after that? What did he do with the information that was collected? Nothing! And the people of Jowai have to continue drinking the polluted water of Myntdu because the government had failed to complete the new Umngot water supply project which is supposed to supply cleaner water to Jowai. The completion of water supply projects at Mynso, Raliang, Rymbai and other places are still pending for more than a decade and a half now.
If the river Myntdu will ever have a fresh lease of life, the credit should go to the young man from Panaliar locality -Sajay Laloo who had filed a PIL with the National Green Tribunal against the rampant destruction of the river and not the MLA who turn a Nelson’s eye to this very important subject of saving the lifeline of Jowai town. Recently; the DC Jowai in collaboration with the JMB convened a special public meeting of the residents of the town to apprise them about the Court’s order in this regard. By washing his hands over the JMB issue, Dr Laloo obviously does not care even if people continue to dispose their liquid waste into the water body of river Myntdu.
Health care facilities remain as they did in both the districts with no improvement at all in this very important sector. The CHC, the PHCs and Sub Centres do not have the required manpower or technology and even medicines are in short supply. The less we say about education the better, because the very reason that the teachers have to strike every now and then, proves that the government has failed in this sector too.
In higher education all the existing colleges like Jaintia Eastern College; Khliehriat, St Anthony’s college extension in Myndihati in the East Jaintia hills and the Thomas Jones College in Jowai, the Presbyterian college Ummulong, to Shangpung College and Nongtalang College were established by communities and until now supported by them. So where is the Government when it comes to providing higher education in the Jaintia hills?
The State has a plan in the anvil to start a medical college and an engineering college in Shillong and Tura but nothing in Jowai and in spite of the community donating land for starting of NEHU campus at Wahiajer, neither the Government nor the University shows any interest to the effect.
The Government agency which has performed below par is the MeECL; the corporation has more power cuts than that it can supply in Jaintia hills, yet in spite of supplying only few hours a day, the energy bill remains the same. In both the East and West Jaintia hills there are reports of villages remaining without power supply for month together.
The Government has also failed the youths of the district as it has not been able to create any jobs at all for them and the young voters will certainly make this Government pay for its sins of omission and commission. This Government has failed its people particularly the youths and it has betrayed the people’s mandate.