By HH Mohrmen
The cloudless sky with the hot autumn sun over the blue horizon is normally what people in the rural areas would welcome with open arms. The harvested rice has reached the farmers’ homes and it would have been a perfect weather to dry the new rice; only that this year there is not much rice to dry. This year the yield from rice is very unsatisfactory. Everywhere we visited there were complaints of low yield as compared to other years due to the abnormal climatic condition. The erratic weather with incessant rain has not only affected the production of rice but it has damaged many paddy fields some beyond repair. This year was rather extraordinary not only because rice production was affected by the unfavourable climatic condition but the unpredictable rain has affected the productions of other crops too.
The state has experienced discontent in many spheres not so much because of the COVID-19 pandemic but because of a host of other issues too. Meghalaya’s economy is largely influenced by people in the rural areas, who also depend on agriculture as a primary activity, hence the climate plays a major role in the rise and the fall of the income of the people. This year the weather played spoilsport on the lives of the poorer sections of the population, but there is nothing to cheer about the performance of the government either. People are complaining that even after cross the halfway tenure the performance of the state government is below the mark.
The autumn session of the Meghalaya state assembly is an indicator of how the NPP-led MDA government fares in the last two and half years of its existence. Credit goes to the Speaker of the House who accepted the No- Confidence Motion moved by the Congress the main party in the opposition in spite of the same being tabled at short notice. It is immaterial to debate why the Speaker allowed the Opposition to move the No Confidence Motion against the government, but the very fact that the House is debating it, is an indication that democracy in the state has come of age and matured.
The Speaker also deserves to be congratulated for launching the Meghalaya Assembly TV channel which provides live coverage of the proceedings in the House. The live telecast of the proceedings in the House enables the people of the state to watch the debates and to see how their representatives performed in the August House. A healthy democracy indeed needs a vibrant and impartial house with a strong opposition and the Congress too ought to be congratulated for doing its job well, by tabling the No Confidence Motion against the MDA government. The No Confidence Motion is not about who wins or loses because ultimately it is a numbers game and whoever has the majority will win, but because of it many issues and failures of the government were brought to the fore.
Unfortunately, the CM’s replies to the many issues brought up by the Opposition left much to be desired; in fact that was not what people expected from a suave, young and techno-savvy political leader like Conrad A Sangma. The decision of the Government to ignore and refuse to say anything on the issue of illegal mining and transportation of coal provides ample evidence for people to doubt the sincerity of the government to tackle this important issue. It provides people with a reason to suspect that there is something behind the scenes and the Government is hiding something from the public. Not only the performance of the Government is questionable but even the competence of the ministers in the cabinet is also questioned.
The NPP-led MDA government encouraged its ministers to be constituency ministers only. Ministers who seek to bring development only to their constituency see nothing beyond that and are not state leaders. Ministers don’t realise that they are to ministers to the entire state. The plan to start two Centres of Excellence in collaboration with the Government of Israel to improve and promote livelihoods of farmers in the state is one such instance when the choice of location is debatable. For instance, the choice of a location which falls in the constituency of the Agriculture Minister is also a case of the minister abusing his power and position to bring development to his constituency only.
In fact, the first example of this is the transfer a division of the PWD department from Jowai to Shangpung lock stock and barrel. Isn’t it true that the move to shift the entire PWD North from Jowai to Shangpung was made to please the MLA of the constituency who was recently dropped from the cabinet? The MLA tried to shift the department from Jowai to Shangpung when he was minister in charge of PWD. Now when the government realised that the move they made is rather unpopular, the Chief Minister had to rush to Jowai and to promise to build a Mini Secretariat in the location where the PWD North Jowai is located.
Now what exactly is a mini secretariat and how will it be of help to the farmers whose paddy field was damaged or their yield affected? Why didn’t the Government instead help farmers rebuild their paddy fields or compensate for their loss rather than planning to build the mini secretariat? The pertinent point there is – when the Government cannot even pay for the salary of the staff of the two Autonomous District Councils, and it is unable to pay the salaries of the SSA teacher regularly, how will building a mini secretariat help the people of the District?
When there are already District Councils at the respective districts what is the need for the mini secretariat? The Government should instead help to strengthen the ADCs and build the capacity of the MDCs. This will go a long way in strengthening the District Councils instead of building the mini secretariat. The CM claimed that moving the PWD division to Shangpung is to bring the Government closer to the people, but what about the existing Government facilities in the rural areas? Are they up to the mark? Rather than wasting the State’s meagre resources on the so called mini secretariat, why not improve healthcare and education especially in the rural areas of the state?
While on the subject of the mini secretariat it is also perhaps not out of place to question how much impact has ‘the Cabinet on the move’ made on the development of the state? What is available in the public domain is that this move is rather a costly affair. If it cost Rs. 19.18 lakhs only for holding the so called Cabinet meetings on the move, one can only imagine how much it will cost to hold a mini assembly. If the intention of the Government is to reach to the people, it should make it mandatory for every cabinet minister to make a regular and surprise visit to the districts and the Block headquarters. This will have more impact rather than having the mini secretariat or the Cabinet on the move.
With regards to mining and illegal extraction of coal one wonders how a man who also has a business interest in providing internet services does not realise that we now live in the world of likes, share and hits. How did the computer-savvy Chief Minister miss the point that the YouTube video of the Leader of the Opposition’s recent visit to the coal mine areas to assess the extracted coal in the Jaiñtia hills has more than one lakhs hits?
This is the autumn of discontent. Despite the fact that it has been almost six months since the pandemic hit the State yet people are still in a dilemma as the future is uncertain. The farmers are the ones who have to bear the brunt. The pandemic had not only hindered their movements; now the weather too had affected their incomes and the Government too is playing with their lives.