Editor,
This refers to the news report of August 31, 2017 where Union Minister for Railways, Rajen Gohain has blamed the state government for the railway deadlock in the state. It would be wrong to disagree with the statement, since the crisis was adamantly due to lackadaisical attitude of the government. This was further inflamed by the reaction and action of various NGO’s. 21st century is an era of globalization and connectivity and accessibility are at the core of this momentous era. Political boundaries have lost their primacy since economic importance has taken over. In this regard we cannot blame railways as the sole culprit for bringing outsiders inside the state. Railways are just a means not an end in itself. In fact the real agenda is to question why these people are coming to our state and what is the attraction? Moreover, when we look deeper we might realize that we have issues only with poor migrants. The so called rich merchants have been flourishing in our state since ages and in fact we are dependent on them to fulfil the needs of our elite and style- conscious citizens in terms of apparels, footware, and more importantly, the food items. Some might argue with the example of Tripura where the tribal identity has been lost, but here also railways are not to blame. As we all know when partition happen during independence of India, Tripura was at a vulnerable location easily allowing Bangladesh migrants to cross over and the state capacity was limited at that time to manage such crisis and that’s how it stands today.
Coming back to the question of why migrants are attracted towards our state, the answer is quite clear, ECONOMIC APPORTUNITIES and Ease of Doing Business with limited competition. Simple observation. We do witness in our everyday lives, shops managed by non-tribals flourish and expand as years go by, whereas the ones managed by local tribals keep diminishing in size. In the construction sector, our own tribal contractor often prefer non- tribal labourers due to devotion and hard work with limited wastage of time which proves beneficial for the house owner as well as contractor in term of cost and time. The same goes to privately own coal mining sector where non-tribals dominate the whole mining work. So what conclusions do we draw from this whole scenario? Should we say the reasons are that we are backward, less educated, poor? I would rather say none of these. The main ingredients we are lacking I suppose is HARD WORK, and the best example we could assimilate is from the state of Mizoram – a small state but the tribal population of the state are dominating many business sectors.
In this globalized world it’s not possible anymore to create barriers. The best solution is to arm ourselves and take up the challenge. Obstructing railway lines in the state is a wrong prescription for the wrong disease. As such without railways also we witness how migrants easily enter through other modes of transportation and the same will continue. Connectivity is the lifeline of development and railways are one of the cheapest modes of transferring freight and passengers. In recent times the announcement made by the Government to extend railway lines up to Shillong and Sohra can be considered as a positive move if it is realized. Such a move should be taken positively. We can explore opportunities in the form of various tourist circuits, hospitality sector, and travel and tours service, giving enough scope for employment and investment venture for entrepreneurs.
The migrant issue should be dealt with seriously vis-a-vis the international boundary, but intra- state migration cannot be handled with the same parameters. Intra state migration can be a boon or bane depending on state functioning and vision, which also includes the citizen’s perception. South Indian states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh have maintained their local identity and kept a stronghold in all sectors in the midst of large numbers of people coming from outside. This is a boon for the state and its people. Another scenario where it can become a bane is what is happening in our state, a perfect combo of government’s languorous attitude and limited cognitive powers of pressure groups while blaming transport infrastructure to hide the slothful and work-shy attitude of our own people.
Yours etc.,
Sonie Kharduit
Shillong
Problem of E-Waste disposal
Editor,
This refers to your report “Pollution Board plans to check e-waste” (ST August 29, 2017). It clearly shows that technological revolution has brought a new threat to environment in the form of e-waste. The biggest challenge is to regularise the collection of e-waste from consumers which requires a high level of awareness. E-waste must be recycled in order to conserve precious natural resources and avoid contamination. The opportunity of exchange and reselling must be provided by the companies to reduce the e-waste. The mounting waste that lie abandoned in our government offices reminds us of yet another problem snowballing into a grave environmental disaster. The government must come up with provisions to collect environmental tax from manufacturers who generate non-biodegradable waste like plastic.
Yours etc.,
Vinod C. Dixit
Ahmedabad -15
Fallout of demonetisation
Editor,
RBI said it is all but 1.4 per cent of the specified bank notes have come back into the banking sector post demonetisation. But the question remains unanswered whether black money is filtered out from the system. The opposition started commenting that demonetisation is a colossal failure. FM Arun Jaitley claims that it has had a positive impact. Depositing currency into banks does not mean they are legal tender. The impact of demonetisation is yet to be established. The windfall gain by RBI was never an objective. While it has not yielded immediate gains but it led to increase of CASA (current account savings account) deposit. That enhanced liquidity position of the banks was utilised to bring down lending rates. A million pieces of counterfeit currency notes have been eliminated in one stroke. The financial inclusion of government flagship programme, Jan Dhan Accounts is now fulfilled. Lakhs of shell companies have been unearthed. A half crore of new tax payers have submitted their returns this financial year thereby netting in higher tax. Real estate prices have gone down. The objective was to formalise the economy, attack on black money, blow to terrorism, money laundering, a speed breaker for corruption and expanding digitisation. The trade and business with Pakistan has come under scanner of NIA. The biggest ever tax reform GST comes into effect. More is yet to come. Hope this will make India a stepping stone to becoming a world economic superpower in the long run.
Yours etc.
Kamal Baruah
Guwahati