Editor,
It has been days since commercial vehicles have been off the road because of the strike against fuel prices and non-remunerative fares, yet no solution seems to be in sight. The general public have been the most affected with students, villagers with market produce, office goers and others who need public transport to commute to their respective destinations left stranded. At the receiving end of this tug
of war between the government and the aggrieved parties, it is the commuter who bears the brunt of it. In the meantime those in authority choose to have a sparring match with other members of the Opposition instead of working towards finding a solution to the ongoing problem.
While empathizing with the organizations that have called for the strike because of the exorbitant price of fuels and the rollback of fares, as a citizen I urge upon the concerned parties to come up with a solution which would benefit all, so that the public would not be made a scapegoat as always, through no fault of theirs.
Yours etc.,
Angela Lyngdoh.
Shillong- 14
When will the strike end?
Editor,
The strike by commercial vehicles has caused immense problems to ordinary people who don’t own private vehicles and have to commute to their workplaces daily in taxis. Not many of the Government owned red buses and maxi taxis are seen on the roads these days. Most of them are so badly maintained that they are abandoned all over the place. The agreement made by Government with some groups to run the vehicles in a way that there is enough revenue generation for maintenance is perhaps not respected or the clauses laid down might have been made in such a way as to benefit the private party as is wont to happen in Meghalaya.
On Sunday the Government said that the price of petrol and diesel would be brought down by Rs 2. That hardly makes any sense. Private vehicles should get paid for the mileage they cover and for that reason it is high time that the Shillong taxis use meters to decide the fares. In this day and age when there is so much development the taxis cannot say that the meters fixed on them will not work because this is a hilly place. I believe this is a lame excuse because the taxis want to fleece the customers.
I appeal to the Government to consider fixing meters on all taxis plying in Shillong. This is also the only place that does not have Uber and Ola cabs which make it very convenient for commuters in other cities. Why are the taxi owners not allowing this fair competition? Why is it that competition in this state is killed all the time and entrepreneurship is not encouraged? It is time that people who can afford to pay travel safely alone and in clean vehicles unlike in the local taxis which are not maintained and dirty inside but which only want to charge passengers a heavy fare. No, you cannot have it both ways. Taxis have to improve their services and not demand to have their cake and eat it too.
Yours etc.,
Veronica Khongjoh,
Via email
Bias in DSC published results
Editor,
The District Selection Committee, Office of the Deputy Commissioner East Khasi Hill District has released the result of the Typing Test to the Post of LDA cum Typist vide letter no.DSC.11/DSC-Exam/WTR/2016/113 Dated February 5, 2021 in which 238 Candidates have been selected to appear for the interview out of approximately 1400 Candidates who were instructed to appear for the typing test vide letter No. Letter no.DSC.10/DSC-Exam/LDA/2018/228 Dated 14th November, 2019.
As per the advertisement issued by the District Selection Committee, Office of the Deputy Commissioner East Khasi Hill vide Letter Memo No.DSC.7/ADVT/2013/60 Dated 14th August, 2018 the Qualification for 118 Vacancies against the Post LDA-cum-Typist is SSLC/HSSLC with knowledge of computer and typing speed of 30 wpm.
During the Typing Speed test scheduled on December 7, 2019 and February 7, 2020, the candidates appearing for the Typing Speed Test were not allowed to view the score of their own typing speed..
The Question here is “Why are we the candidates not allowed to view the scores of our own typing speed test?”; “Are the 238 Candidates who have been selected the only candidates who crossed the 30 words per minutes as mentioned in the advertisement?” It seems the 238 candidates selected to appear for the interview are in the ratio of 2 candidates to 1 post. If so why did the authority mention the need of 30 words per minute in the Advertisement. We demand that the District Selection Committee, East Khasi Hills publish the scores of the Typing Speed Test against the roll no. of each candidate who appeared for the Typing Speed Test.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request,
Via email