Editor,
So the banned outfit HNLC has finally given its views and opinion on the troubled Them Metor problem and what they have written is not the least surprising to one and all. At best one can describe the outfit’s call to kill all Punjabis living in Meghalaya as outrageous and stupid but at its worst its a deliberate wicked attempt to inflame and arouse unnecessary communal tension between the Khasis and the rest of the citizens of India. The HNLC has tried to give a patriotic colour to its call and that the threat given by it is to protect and defend the interest of the Hynniewtrep people, their land but nothing can be further from the truth and actually any HNLC action on the matter will boomerang badly on the Khasi Community as a whole. It will hurt Khasi people working and studying outside and such People will lose precious jobs, students will be forced to return home, our tiny community will be encircled and the sense of frustration within Meghalaya will increase. This is what the outfit wants and it is fishing in troubled waters as it can only survive when there is disharmony and dissatisfaction as well as failure of law and order in society. This attempt at misinformation by the HNLC should not blind us to the fact that it is a bunch of desperate murderers, terrorists, extortionists, thugs and anti nationalists while statements from Sainkupar Nongtraw are sounding more and more like statements from ISI of Pakistan and that Patriotism and love of mother land is the last thing that they represent.
This brings up an interesting question: Why is the Home Minister of Meghalaya keeping quiet about the whole thing? No meeting with the Police has been called. No consultation with those who have earlier dealt with militancy has been made. No challenge to this outrageous threat has been forthcoming from the Home Department of Meghalaya. Why is the Home Minister of the State only interested in peace talks with this murderous outfit as all such action will simply demoralise the police force of the state. The Harijan Panchayat Committee of Them Metor has written to the Union Home Minister asking for protection. The State Govt has been painted in very poor light and the Meghalaya Home Minister takes this lying down? Don’t we have any confidence in our own Police force? The State Govt should immediately take up the matter with the Centre. It should impress upon the Govt of India to take up the issue of HNLC refuge in Bangladesh among the Khasi community there. India enjoys a good relationship with Bangladesh so India should demand that anti national elements and terrorists using that territory as a safe heaven be flushed out; force be used against their hideouts and against those who give them shelter in Bangladesh. The HNLC must be flushed out of their safe heavens in the neighbouring country. They should be forced to flee back to India where our own Police can then finish them off one by one. The Meghalaya Police have the capacity to wipe them out and we had done it before earlier. This is not the time for olive branches but for tough action against such snakes and vipers.
Yours etc.,
JK Kharsohnoh,
Via email
Health administration must improve
Editor,
I wish to congratulate Dr. Khyllep, Dr. Surong and their team for successfully operating a large neck mass at a small government facility(reported in the Shillong Times, June 10th, 2019). Many a time such efforts seem like a thankless job, considering the amount of preparation that goes into each surgery, and criticism any failure would bring. It is to be noted that their efforts to provide further services is limited by the non availability of blood bank services.
I wish to contrast this with your editorial, Health sector in distress, (ST May 4, 2019), wherein it was portrayed that doctors are responsible for the dismal state of Healthcare in the state. While there are a few black sheep, as in most professions, a lot depends on the administration, which in general is a non medical person’s job. No matter how hard a doctor toils, without support from the administrative team, not much can be done. While you have called upon doctors to work beyond office hours, why not ask the administrative staff to do the same? In fact if administrative efficiency improves, better Healthcare can be provided to the public.
Would the media look into the adequacy of staff at Ganesh Das and other government hospitals? If not, who is to expedite the appointments? Why is the Shillong Medical College not ready several years after the foundation stone being laid? While it’s easy to blame doctors, it won’t do anything to improve the health care of the state. The media needs to raise the right questions for the society to improve.
Yours etc.,
Dr Caleb Harris,
Via email
CAU in Meghalaya
Editor,
If media reports are to be believed, then Meghalaya may not get the much needed Central Agricultural University. If this is so it will be the saddest story of the state. We in Meghalaya are urgently in need of such Universities as students have a lot of aspiration from such a University. The University would have been a blessing to the state in so many ways if the proposal had materialised. However, the state government is taking this issue very lightly. Writing a DO letter to the Prime Minister will not be sufficient. What is most important is that the entire cabinet should take this issue very seriously and the Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, should have gone with a delegation of his cabinet colleagues to the Prime Minister and Union Agriculture Minister to press hard for setting up of the Central Agricultural University in Kyrdemkulai as earlier promised by the then Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, who had also laid the foundation stone of the building there. This issue was raked up by the Mawphlang MLA, S.K Sunn in the Assembly last year. The MDA government took some interest in it for sometime last year but it did not follow up the matter. Mr S.K Sunn has again raked up this issue with the Chief Minister recently vide a DO letter to him to ensure that this CAU is materialised in Meghalaya and not to be blackmailed by Manipur. Yes, the MDA government under Conrad Sangma should not take things lying down in this regard but pursue this issue to its logical end. I am certain that if this issue is left only to the state Agricultural Minister, Banteidor Lyngdoh, the much needed CAU will not see the light of day.
Yours etc.,
Philip Marwein,
Via-Email.