Editor,
With reference to a news item in your paper (ST June 14, 2017) under the caption “Pastors not to pursue case against State Marriage Act”, the Maitshaphrang would like to clarify that we had never made any statement that “pastors do not counsel families that are on the verge of break-down” because we do not have the information nor the figures to support or to make such a comment.
But in responding to the above, it is quite an absurd comment for senior advocate VGK Kynta to make, as reported, “We counsel families the moment we see in-fighting. How does he know that we don’t counsel? It is a very stupid comment.” We are not talking about isolated cases here, but a major problem affecting the state and he is not in a position to have available statistics to know how many are being counseled and how many are not in the entire state, especially in cases of unregistered marriages. But when you see the gravity of the problem of broken marriages , both registered and unregistered, even among Christian couples, it is the broken families themselves who can be the better judge to state whether or not they were counseled.
The unanimous support from all the MLAs both ruling and opposition while passing the Meghalaya Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act just shows the seriousness of the problem.
But merely having a law will not solve the problem. We need active public participation and the support of all religious institutions, women’s organizations, concerned NGOs and individuals to make the general public aware of the law and the importance to register all marriages irrespective of their religious or non- religious affiliations especially since the marriage registration certificate is now mandatory for all official purposes.
Yours etc.,
Michael N. Syiem,
Via email
Stop spreading misinformation on GST!
Editor,
I read with great amusement Sujit De’s letter captioned “GST a caste-based tax” (ST June 17, 2017). The writer clearly has no idea of the taxation structure in this country and his ultra left leanings are written all over the wall. I do not mean to correct someone who clearly has no idea of what GST entails but I felt that this letter needs to be written so as to enlighten the general public on some of the features of GST. The new taxation regime which is planned to be rolled out from 1 July 2017 will subsume Central Excise & Service Tax and most of the state tax levies (such as VAT, entertainment tax, amusement & betting tax and the likes). It has to be understood that GST will have to incorporate the elements of the erstwhile Central Excise which is essentially a tax on industrial manufacturing. In this context it is apparent that braille paper, typewriters, hearing aids are all manufactured items and hence manufacturing duties which were levied earlier need to be incorporated in the GST. As regards items pointed out by the individual such as sacred thread (made of cotton strands) and vibhuti (ash), it does not even need clarification that these are not manufactured. And to comment on panchamrit (made of five elements milk, yoghurt, honey, jaggery and ghee) which is prepared by the priest as an offering to Gods during ceremonies is height of ludicrousness.
While everyone is welcome to opine on anything and everything under this country, I personally feel that open spreading of misinformation is what ails this country and needs to be checked.
Yours etc.,
Sumit Kar
Shillong- 1