Editor,
Firstly, I sincerely admire the people of Meghalaya for tolerating this inefficient governance of the Government of Meghalaya. In any other part of the country, there would have been bloodshed with the amount of load shedding that is being effected by this government. By the way, all protests and demonstrations by our people here just end up in lip service. Has any protests and demonstration borne fruit? Talk about ILP, CAA, Harijan Colony, NGT et al. The protests last for a few days and they die down never to be resurrected. Coming back to load-shedding, it’s a crime that 8 hours of power cut is being imposed and that too during the peak hours of work whether in government offices or commercial institutions. I wonder what the government officers do during those hours without electricity? They (not sure how many of them) start work at 10:00 am and by 12:30 pm there is no power until 4:30 pm after which they leave the offices. So with just 3 hours of works daily they still receive their salaries. Is this justified? This is a crime.
Instead all the offices should be closed and since there is no work, don’t pay the employees. Let their salaries clear all the pending bills of the MeECL. Another irony with the government is that they cut power for so many hours due to shortage of power supply from other sources. But why is that thousands of street lights (counting those that work) are being lit even during the day? Those streetlights are with halogen bulbs and the amount of energy they consume is very high. Can the government say something on why those streetlights should not be switched-off during the day so that the energy can be stored to at least reduce the bills to be paid to the Corporation?
Newspaper reports say that CM and many ministers and officers have gone to different countries for vacation, perhaps spending a few crore rupees. Actually if YOU in government love the state and its people as you have said during your election campaign, with that money you could have installed solar street lights and saves so much of electricity. The irony is that YOU ARE INEFFICIENT and that’s why you blame others.
Yours etc.,
Michael Makri
Shillong – 3
Keep politics out of religion
Editor,
I have penned down this letter to express my disaffection at the unethical practices of today’s political leaders of major political parties. They are using various religious platforms and events to make themselves known or to further their political agenda. They forget that the Bible has mentioned Jesus as saying, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” This implies the separation of politics and earthly matters. Leaving aside politicians who by default are seen as donors, there are also individuals who represent a section of the Church organisations and continue to use this as an advantage for the political parties and political agenda they align with. We have seen the likes of Mr. K.J. Alfonse a BJP MP and his silence on crucial matters. We see many others from various political parties also dragging the church along and turning it into a sort of a political circus. The faithful also happily allow matters of faith and religion to be used as tools for promoting political agenda. This indeed is unfortunate.
Yours etc…
Dominic S. Wankhar
Shillong
IAF strengthened
Editor,
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is going to inaugurate the induction ceremony of SU-30 fighter squadron at the Air Force Station in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu on January 20 giving more teeth to Indian military prowess. The fighters are expected to have the most potent platform capable of long reach and multi-role capabilities.
The SU-30 is a twin-engine, two-seat super maneuverable fighter aircraft developed by Russia’s Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multi-role fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions. It may be recalled that the IAF had earlier announced the resurrection of the 222 Squadron –The Tigersharks on January 1 with the Sukhois. The maritime strike squadron inducted in the IAF is also armed with the indigenous Brahmos missile. The Tiger Sharks equipped with formidable state-of–the–art air superiority fighter air craft, which are armed with 2.5 ton air- launched Brahmos missile of 300 km range, have the capability to strike from large stand-off ranges on any target at sea or on land with pin-point accuracy by day or night and in all weather conditions.
The Indian Ocean Region is vast and spread over three continents. Hence India has an important role to play in regional peace, security and prosperity and strengthening Indian defence with state-of-the-art warfare technologies and equipments is the need of the hour.
Yours etc.,
TK Nandanan,
Via email
Why no DDK Shillong on DTH?
Editor,
The company DISHTV recently removed channel No 4018 of DDK Shillong from its platform and renamed it as Zee Bioscope. I lodged a complaint with the DISHTV company through email and telephonic conversation. The reply that I got from the Customer Executive of DISHTV is that they are removing the channel without mentioning the reasons for the removal. I am pained to see that DD Aizawl on channel No 4020 is still being telecast by DISHTV. So why is only the DDK Shillong channel axed? If the people living in urban areas with cable TV network can enjoy watching local news and local talent programmes on DDK Shillong, why is the same not transmitted by DTH Companies to their customers in rural areas where there’s no cable TV network?
Yours etc.,
M Passah,
Via email