Editor,
The leakage of the list of MBoSE toppers as reported in your daily (ST May 23, 2017) has again raised questions about the credibility of the Board .While in the past, there were question paper leaks, the release of the result on social media, a day before the result has only exposed MBoSE. This appears to be an inside job. Many parents and students were shocked to learn of this matter and it has cast doubts in their minds on the state of affairs of MBoSE.
If the results can be leaked, as a parent, I am worried about the authenticity of the marks allotted to toppers and successful students. From my interactions with students, I could gauge that they are not happy with the way MBoSE conducts the examination and declares the results. Students who expected top positions were disappointed by the results as there is a vast difference between the marks they obtained and what they calculated soon after the exams. Now, the only way out is to go for re-evaluation, but the students feel dejected as they believe that justice and fair play are a far cry since they have lost faith in the current system.
I would suggest that MBoSE opens itself to the public and allows students and their parents to have a look at the answer scripts if they wish to, as RTI rules allow this. Since it affects the future of students, MBoSE should clear the re-evaluation of answer scripts within two weeks of a student applying for re-evaluation. I am also skeptical about the manner in which hitherto unknown schools were placed in top positions by MBoSE, while the schools that used to excel every year did not figure in the top twenty list! Without questioning the capability of the students to secure top positions as they did there is now a genuine need to examine the allegations in the wake of the leaked results.
Yours etc.,
A concerned parent
Name withheld on request
STP and cab drivers
Editor,
There has been so much talk about reining in local cab drivers who refuse to ferry passengers mid-way or from certain starting points to the extent that the traffic department went into an over drive of asking the public to register complaints against such errant cab drivers. What is appalling is that traffic policemen posted at various points and junctions do not have the courage to reprimand or take these local cabbies to task but simply look on instead of helping and assisting the hapless commuters. This happens in places like Police Bazar, Motphran, Laitumkhrah, Happy Valley, Madanryting etc. Traffic policemen in other states go out of their way to assist commuters but here it is the common man that has to help himself. Take for instance the traffic junction at Don Bosco Square which your paper had highlighted as being hugely inconvenient fo0r the public but which has fallen on deaf ears. It’s almost as if Traffic Police have all the wisdom in the world. Can we ask the Chief Minister to call a meeting of commuters and traffic police personnel where idea can be exchanged, otherwise where is the public platform for airing our views?
Yours etc…
Dominic S. Wankhar
Shillong-7
Issues before Meghalaya 5th Pay Commission
Editor,
The on-going terms of this Meghalaya Pay Commission headed by Mr. P.J. Bazeley, the ex Chief Secretary of Meghalaya is approaching its conclusion, but even at this eleventh hour, I would like to advance 2 core points of contention before this Commission in the larger interest of my fellow State employees: (1) To revoke the blanket ban on compassionate ground appointment that was promulgated since November 24, 2010 vide Notification No. PER (AR) 62/2009/54 Dtd 02.12.2010. Against this total abolition, there are, nevertheless, a good number of cases where the sole earner of the family who happens to be employed in Govt. Department may suffer an untimely death thereby leaving the entire eligible dependants high and dry ending up in pecuniary crisis. I can’t see reasons why our Govt. has sweepingly adopted such a hard line administrative policy even as we notice that in Central Govt Offices there still exists, a quota reserved for compassionate employments and for that matter even in most state government establishments such job-facility has not been dispensed with in toto. Thus, unlike Meghalaya, they set the stellar example of being a truly welfare states of India which is why in the All India governance index revealed recently on May 13, Meghalaya finished at the bottom of states in the field of justice delivery.
The next important point is that in the span of two years all duly retired State personnel post superannuation will have become senior citizens and such citizens are globally respected as conspicuously vindicated in advanced notions like Japan, the western countries and others. There is no gainsaying that with the advance of age, the human body is susceptible to winter’s chill and most of them perish owing to inclement weather like that of Shillong which is notorious for extreme winter conditions. Going by this analogy, I request the existing Pay Commission to also include winter allowances to the retirees besides the other allowances normally availed by the latter. Admittedly, none can call to question the fact that these retired staff had at the prime of their service life rendered invaluable services to the State Govt. in their various capacities. Thus as a token of gratitude, the Commission ought to favorably introspect over this humanitarian issue.
On the above premise I also appeal to the Meghalaya Federation Employees Union to take up the suggestions in right earnest before this Pay Commission, which are per se the welfare packages which could go a long way in benefitting the working community of the State Govt, many of whom would have loved to continue services but for their having attained 58 years of age.
Yours etc
Jerome K. Diengdoh
Shillong 2
Status of women in Islam and Christianity
Editor,
The talaq victims’ step in rejecting the move of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to curb the practice via circulars to Qazis will make no dent in the status of women in Islam. Nikah is an Islamic marriage in which the bride agrees to have a husband and is willing to share him with three other women if he decides to marry them, and the bride-to-be also agrees to become his ex-wife if he decides to say “Talaq, talaq, talaq”. In the case of a Christian marriage, both the prospective husband and wife know that their “marriages are made in heaven,” and that they have no choice but to remain husband and wife, “till death do us part”. When a Christian man or woman marries, the spiritual law binds them together as long as they are alive. But if one dies, the laws of marriage no longer applies to him or her. So while the wife or husband is alive, she/he would be committing adultery if she/he married another woman or man. But, according to the Bible, if either the wife or husband dies the survivor is freed from that law and does not commit adultery when he or she remarries.Oh, the difference between a Christian and an Islamic marriage (Nikhah)!
Yours etc.,
Omar Luther King
Delhi – 34