Editor,
Through your esteemed daily, we would like to bring to the notice of the Authorities that we have been using the J N.Sports Complex for morning walks with necessary Entry Pass issued by the authorities by paying a bare minimum fee. But recently by an order from the authorities, the Entry Fee has become very very high @ Rs.600 per month just for 1(one) hour or so in the morning. Earlier it used to be Rs.250 for six months. As it is well known that in most of the Cities in India for the morning walk purposes, these sports complexes are kept open so that the citizens can live a healthy life. We, therefore, appeal to our young dynamic ,new Hon’ble Sports Minister to look into this matter so that the entry fees are kept to a bare minimum, if not free, for the benefit of us citizens.
Yours etc., ,
S.Dey, J. Lyngdoh,
& others,
Via email
Manage the traffic please!
Editor,
Everyone was shocked on the early morning of March 14 when everything came to a grinding halt, which is unusual. The culprit, a giant twelve wheeler truck broke down that morning in the narrow roads of Nongthymmai, with the driver absconding. Children were late to school which is no fault of theirs. The big question is – how on earth did this truck get into our streets when clearly they shouldn’t. Shillong traffic is heading towards disaster if no action is taken. Flyovers are a must come what may. Government, Institutions, Military and the general public must act together in unity to do away with all obstacles so that we see light. Another brief suggestion is to have one road from Dhankheti to Cleve colony leading all the way to Laitkor then merging with the NH 44, thereby bypassing and easing daily traffic chaos which usually occurs from Fire Brigade up to Madanryting. Vehicles come in magnitude from these areas and having this bypass will lay to rest our grievances. We can see most of the land belongs to the government and though the state is financially weak but when there’s a will there’s always a way. This Government will take all necessary steps, I hope, to ease traffic congestion and we believe the centre won’t turn a deaf ear either in supporting this Government.
Yours etc.,
- Wanshnong,
Via email
The age of iconoclasts
Editor,
This is with reference to the article, “Past fixation at present cost” by Poonam I Kaushish (ST, Mar 12, 2018). Past fixation is no doubt costly but past modification is indeed deadly. We have just seen the efforts of such modifications from Sylhet to Belonia. The distance between Sylhet in Bangladesh and Belonia in Tripura is only 248 kilometres. Recently, those two places have become news items almost at the same time for some wrong reasons. While a rationalist was stabbed at Sylhet; Belonia witnessed vandalism of the statue of Lenin, triggering a series of the desecration of statues of Ambedkar, Periyar and Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
We cannot modify or ignore Lenin’s contributions to our freedom struggle. We cannot forget the contributions of Bhagat Singh and others who were greatly influenced by Lenin and the October Revolution. Even Jawaharlal Nehru had said, “Almost at the same time as the October Revolution led by the great Lenin, we in India began a new phase in our struggle for freedom. Our people for many years were engaged in this struggle with courage and patience. And although under the leadership of Gandhi we followed another path, we were influenced by the example of Lenin.”
Are the Taliban breaking the statues of great men at some places in our country? As a matter of fact, there is no difference between the Taliban who had dynamited the Buddha statue at Bamiyan, Afghanistan and the mob that had broken the statue of Lenin at Belonia in Tripura instigating other Talibans to do the same injustice to the statues of some other great men as well.
Now, let us go from Belonia, Tripura to Sylhet, Bangladesh where some fringe elements having a slavish adherence to the mythical past had stabbed Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, a science fiction author, physicist, professor and activist. In Bangladesh, fanatics had earlier taken the lives of Niloy Chatterjee, Washiqur Rahman Babu, Avijit Roy, Nazimuddin Samad, Rezaul Karim Siddiquee and others. We know that persons who carry in them some progressive elements had always suffered at the hands of the blind forces of falsehood. Thus, Mahatma Gandhi, Malala Yousufzai, Malleshappa Kalburgi and Gouri Lankesh had always been the targets of regressive fringe groups.
Should not we protest in one voice? Or keep going on in the way what Paul Simon wrote in the song, “The Sound of Silence”, People talking without speaking/ People hearing without listening/ People writing songs that voices never shared/ And no one dared
Disturb the sounds of silence….
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Via email