Editor,
This refers to the front-page news item “Water supply affected in the city” (ST, April 3, 2018). It is amazing that in this era of super computers and awesome smart phones, the people of this great city are made to endure frequent inconveniences as far as even basic needs like electricity or water are concerned! Why does the main water pipe-line break down so easily and so frequently? And even if this happens, then why does it take 4 days for the concerned Department to replace/repair the same? Do they order and start taking the pain of bringing new pipes from outside the state only after the pipes get damaged? The public are interested to know if there is a dearth of skilled technicians in the Department? Or, do they get the works done with the help of unskilled people only! I wonder if such ‘main water pipe-line break-down’ episode occur so frequently in other cities too! Why such frequent collapses? Which material are the pipes made of that they cannot bear the weight of flowing water for long and hence break down so often? Or, are sub-standard materials used every time the ‘break-down’ takes place? Now, my question is: why the innocent citizens always have to bear the brunt due to the likely inefficiencies or greed of few people? The writer of this piece, on behalf of the public would, therefore, like to request the new MDA Government under the dynamic leadership of Conrad Sangma, to look into the matter seriously and do the needful at the earliest.
Yours etc.,
Partha Sarathy Gupta,
Via email
Frequent power cuts!
Editor,
I wish to air through your paper the difficulties faced by us the residents of Sharing Lum, near Mawblei Petrol Pump with regards to the extremely erratic power supply from the MeECL. Recently we had power outages of more than two to three hours more or less on a daily basis. In the last three days these power outages have continued throughout the night only to be restored the next day. On March 29, alone the power was out from 7 PM and was restored only at 9.45 AM the next day. Then it went off again at 3 PM and was restored at 6.55.PM. When the complaint number is called the standard response is, “Your line is connected from Nongkrem so it is going to take time”.
While we do appreciate the fact that maintenance is not an easy task, and we are sure there are dutiful linesmen attending to these problems, but we consumers depend on the power supply for everything from using our water filters, pumping water for daily needs, working on our PCs and laptops , using our mobile phones and watching our TVs to name a few, and these require as far as possible uninterrupted power supply. We request the authorities concerned in the MeECL to look into the problems causing these frequent power outages faced by us.
Our suggestion is that if the Nongkrem connection is too unwieldy by virtue of the great distance involved, then kindly arrange a power source from somewhere nearby as was done all along in the past, so that problems, if they arise, are promptly dealt with easily .We do hope the authorities concerned take a serious view of these issues faced by residents of the area and take steps to address them suitably.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request
India an unhappy country!
Editor,
This is with reference to your editorial, “Students as victims” (ST, April 3, 2018). We feel sad when we cannot afford exorbitant costs of education for our children. And we feel very happy when our children do well in examinations. As a matter of fact, the difference between the people’s access to quality education is one of reasons why Nordic countries are the happiest countries of the world and India is becoming more unhappy. According to World Happiness Report 2018, Finland gets the top position, Norway is at the second position, followed by Denmark at number 3, Iceland at number 4 and Sweden at number 9 whereas India slides down further from 122 in 2017 to 133 out of 156 countries.
Indeed, Nordic countries have given top priority to education and other human development indices. Education including higher education is totally free in all the Nordic countries. Moreover, an unemployed person gets handsome allowance in those states. So, education has not become a matter of rat race for survival as Nordic people enjoy huge social support from the state.
It is a pity that instead of ensuring affordable quality education for all, we are now trying to limit it only for the rich by letting corporate houses extract more and more profit from nursery to higher education business and that too almost without any effective state control. Moreover, our jobless growth makes students face growing apprehension that they may not get jobs in future which means living without employment and without any unemployment allowance as well.
In the name of education, we are giving good business to market players whereas students are getting lathis when they protest against fee hike which is nothing but shutting the door of education in the poor students’ face. In this way, we are actually wasting huge human capital that should have been utilised and developed. The CBSE question paper leak is just another example of how we fail our students. All the students of our country need to be provided with affordable, value – based and job – oriented quality education to make our country strong and happy.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata