Editor,
Dalit uprising is a natural reaction to caste hatred which is still raising its ugly head. On caste supremacy and separatism, Swami Vivekananda had said, “There is an old superstition in Bengal that if the cobra that bites, sucks out his own poison from the victim, the man will survive. Well then, the Brahmin must suck out his own poison.” The onus is indeed on the higher castes to address the current issues.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata
Cruelty exposed
Editor,
The Khasi-Pnar community takes prides in being loving, kind, merciful and above all God-fearing. But the recent violent video clip of an incident that took place in Khliehriat which went viral on the social media network showing a young boy being beaten brutally for his ‘fault’ of asking for his due wages from his employer and later being falsely accused of stealing things is simply absurd, inhuman and deserves condemnation. I applaud Agnes Kharshiing of CSWO and Batesi a local media channel for having taken evidence and lodging an FIR. We are yet to hear more from so-called organisations that trumpet their ” love” for the community and their silence speaks volumes of their sincerity. The police at Khliehriat, as far as I know from a source who was working, and later resigned from the police force is that the police in Khliehriat are ” highly” unqualified leave alone being professional or knowledgeable of laws when dealing with heinous crimes such as this one that was beamed on social media. Perhaps the DGP should initiate sensitization classes for the lower and middle rung personnel of the police department on human rights law and other sections of the law which will somehow improve their efficiency.
Yours etc…
Dominic S. Wankhar
Shillong:
Improving connectivity in the NorthEast
Editor,
With the construction of Dhola-Sadiya bridge in Assam, Govt. Of India has achieved yet another milestone in connecting its different fringe areas with mainland India. With a length of 9.15 Kms the bridge at best can be said to be an engineering marvel. Hope the Govt. of India Initiates many more projects like this to remove communication bottlenecks in different remote areas of India and particularly Northeast India.
Yours etc.,
Sadiq Hussain
Guwahati
Back-handed compliment for Shillong
Editor,
I want to congratulate Shillong and its inhabitants for working so hard to make Shillong proud by upgrading its rank of 276 from No 53 in the recent Swachh ranking conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development in January/Feb 2017. Meghalaya has only one city – Shillong but the Government cannot even keep it clean. This is a matter of shame and concern. Waste management in Shillong is almost non-existent. It is high time the Government thinks of outsourcing waste management to other private agencies to keep Shillong clean as the Municipal Board under the Urban Affairs Department of the State Government has failed on all fronts to maintain cleanliness. The employees of the Municipality should be given a golden handshake as the 4th grade employees working there are lazy, non- committal and do their job haphazardly. As can be seen while passing through Police Bazar/ Barabazar, the hawkers have hijacked the entire footpath and narrow lanes adjoining the main road hence pedestrians are forced to walk on the main road thereby risking their lives, all thanks to the NGOs and people in the higher echelons who work tirelessly for the hawkers! From what I could gather, some agents are collecting money from hawkers for payment to the higher ups! Who are those higher ups? Only the CBI inquiry can unearth this.
It is also surprising to read in the local newspapers that some politicians blame the Central Government for Shillong’s poor ranking and allege that is politically motivated. The Government which has absolutely no control over hawkers and is unable to maintain cleanliness has no right to be in power. My humble suggestion is that the dustbins which have been removed some years ago should be restored as it is observed that littering has increased after removal of public garbage bins. The bins should be constructed with separate compartments for bio-degradable and non-biodegradable items (blue & green). Vehicles collecting the garbage should come in pairs to collect the segregated garbage. This will help to a great extent to keep Shillong clean
With so many schools in the city why don’t we take the help of the school authorities to send their wards (by turn) once a week to Police Bazar and Bara Bazar to enforce cleanliness and to impose fines on law breakers? Last but not least I would request the inhabitants of Meghalaya not to compare Shillong to Scotland as we are nowhere near Scotland in terms of cleanliness and waste management.
Yours etc.,
B.S. Blah
Shillong-2