Editor,
NEHU announced that the last date of submission of applications for PG courses is July 18. If one looks at the application form there is no option for ‘Results Awaited’ and it is mandatory to fill up the total percentage of the UG course. But the BA results are not out yet and those who have already filled out the forms counted the marks up to the 5th Semester. When the students went to submit the forms in the Department, the ones in the office would not accept the forms because results of the 6th Semester was not filled up.
Students were told that those who have already submitted have a great chance of being rejected. This has left the students confused because the results are not out yet so they submitted incomplete forms and now their forms are at the risk of being rejected. Is it the student’s fault that they failed to produce results of the 6th Semester? No! B.Sc, B.Com and BSW results were declared last week but not BA.
Why are they taking such a long time? Results in other Universities are already out and some have already started their PG Courses in the month of June. Students who wish to take up B.Ed course could not fill up the forms because the 6th Semester results were mandatory and hence they could not apply. So one whole year has gone to waste! Many students are missing out on so many great opportunities just because NEHU is taking such a long time to declare the results. When will wake up?
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request
Meghalaya: Paradise gone awry
Editor,
Through your paper I wish to highlight as to how filthy and dirty Shillong has become. Even our tourist spots are full of garbage and litter. What I find difficult to comprehend is why people feel the need to eat and drink where ever they go ? I suppose it’s alright to do so but how responsible are we when it comes to disposing off LITTER and GARBAGE. Sad to say none at all! Somehow we feel that its someone else’s responsibility and that sense of Pride and Belonging is totally absent. People drive around in fancy cars but throw their garbage out of their cars onto the road. Spitting is another menace.
The point being that if something is so tasty as Kwai or paan the why then the need to spit it out? And oh yes the trend is to have a dog and I can understand that the dog needs to be walked but when the dog litters on the pavement…. then what? Whose duty is it to clean that litter? What is even more amazing is that Assam is capitalizing on the beauty of Meghalaya. Most of the tour operators are from Assam judging from the number of AS Number plate cars that ply on our roads. What is even more amazing is nothing is being done about it.
Our local people make absolutely nothing from these tourists except the paltry sum made from the fee for visiting the spot. I asked a cabbie once whether he got tourists to take around in Shillong and not surprisingly his reply was “No’ So then I went a step further as asked if he did belong to an association and collectively they could do something about it. His reply was shocking. According to him if the tourist cabs from Assam were stopped somewhere before entering Shillong and tourists were made to use local transport, then what if Assam does not allow them to ply from Shillong to Guwahati airport?? I had no answer to that…….
Yours etc.,
Chrisitne Nonghuloo.
Shillong-3
IBDLP needs a revamp
Editor,
The previous Congress led-government that has successfully established the Meghalaya Rural Development Society (MRDS) to oversee and implement IFAD’s livelihood improvement project in the state since late 2005 onwards. But the MUA Govt led by former CM, Dr Mukul Sangma suddenly chose to dissolve this Institution that had held the hope of thousands of self help groups, cluster federations and village communities. This was a disaster and boomeranged on the Congress when the NGT ban came into force. In order to save face, Dr Mukul brought in the Integrated Basin Development & Livelihoods Project (IBDLP) in which all parent departments had to shell out 10% of their departmental budget to allocate to this new Organization.
However, though the concept might have noble the implementation levels have left much to be desired so much so some legislators themselves questioned the success rate of the IBDLP which is unlike what MRDS had achieved in its first phase. It is ironic that an organization like MRDS which could have bolstered and uplifted many households through the SHG movement in those years even when the NGT ban came became instead a wasted effort. The Block Resources Management Committee’s or BRMC’s that were set up to bridge the link between the government departments and the rural folks were left to wither and became defunct.
Today the IBDLP has become more of a socalled learning center with no inkling about rural issues and problems and how to address them. The need of the hour is for this new Government to revamp and ramp up the entire IBDLP Project and ensure that it integrates into the system a robust external monitoring and evaluation system like the IFAD Project had so that course correction is possible and tangible changes at the ground are measured.
Yours etc..
Dominic S.Wankhar
Via email