Editor,
Apropos the article “Meghalaya Tourism turns freakish” (ST July 28, 2017), I wish to say that the article was very carefully written after much observation and first- hand knowledge of the ground realities in the most tourist traffic routes and destinations. I could not but fully appreciate the writer, Patricia Mukhim, for bringing into the public domain the various defects in Meghalaya Tourism with the sole purpose of how to remove the aberrations and improve this sector further. She has also pointed out many areas on how to sustain tourism and one of the many ways is that tourism has to be made eco-friendly by both the stakeholders of the infrastructure and the tourists (visitors) themselves.
About the daily traffic jam between the Umiam Lake up to Rhino Point in Rilbong locality and from Rhino Point to the Seventh Mile in Upper Shillong along the NH 40, I would like to suggest that this can be eased by expansion and converting this portion into a grand three lane road. The other thing that should be implemented is the “Sikkim model” for tourist vehicles. Tourist vehicles ferrying tourists to Shillong before proceeding for local site seeing or to Sohra or to other tourist destinations should be parked in Shillong. Tourists should then take local tourist vehicles only before going to the tourist’ spots. This will help to enhance the income of drivers and owners of these vehicles and even the local taxis. Moreover, it will also uplift the income of the local people out of tourist inflow. About the entry fees to tourist spots, I fully agree with Ms Mukhim that entry fees should be substantially increased.
Yours etc.,
Philip Marwein,
Shillong-2
Can Kohli be answerable?
Editor,
On July 22nd last when Mr. Nalin Kohli one of BJP’s spokesmen who is also appointed as the one in-charge of the Meghalaya forthcoming Assembly elections slated for 2018 came to Shillong had found himself stranded in a tediously long traffic snarl up near the Umiam lake from around twelve noon and arrived Shillong at 3 p.m. and that too on being fetched by a two wheeler sent from the city. And upon arriving in Shillong, Mr. Kohli gave full vent to his feelings to the media team of the utter failure of the Congress led government in Meghalaya under Dr. Mukul Sangma for the latter’s abysmal failure in dealing with such acute vehicular jams. In a word, Kohli opined that our State Government has miserably failed the common citizens in ameliorating this vital sector of communication line thereby throwing things out of gear and unleashing desperation to all and sundry. Mr. Kohli further iterated that such public negligence in other saffron ruled states is few and far between. If that being so, I hope that Meghalaya will get a BJP government in the next term. By articulating such statements, Mr. Kohli has undoubtedly hit the nail on the head; but be that as it may, I, for one, foresee that the solution of the on-going traffic problems has become next to impossible unless those at the helm adopt radical measures.
Coincidentally, on the same evening I occasioned to see in one of the news channels of cable networks, a field report on Madhya Pradesh, a saffron ruled state for more than 10 years which demonstrated a deplorable state of affairs of schools that beggars all description in terms of bare need-based infrastructures where students have had to counter insurmountable inconvenience to pursue their much desired educational pursuits thereby making the much vaunted Right to Education a gross misnomer ! Hence, can Mr. Kohli be answerable for such glaring disconnect in social sectors that probably also bedevils the other BJP ruled states as exemplified by Madhya Pradesh?
Yours etc.,
Jerome K. Diengdoh,
Via email