Patricia Mukhim
Those of us living in Shillong often forget that there are villages just over one hundred odd kilometres away from this urban hub that don’t get electricity for months together during the monsoons when storms and winds blow apart the electric poles and there is no one to repair them for months on end. Yes this is the story of most of our villages in Meghalaya, yet such news does not figure in our newspapers because we are all so obsessed with what happens and does not happen in Shillong. I blame myself too as a media person for not doing enough to give agency to people who actually are so disempowered by the tyranny of distance. The distance between themselves and Shillong and between themselves and those who control their destinies and who hold the key to development – the State Government and its multiple machinery which does not seem to go beyond the district headquarters.
Recently this writer visited Wahkaji village which is 135 Kms from Shillong and takes over five hours to traverse over dirt road once you have crossed Mawkyrwat, the headquarters of South West Khasi Hills. The distance between Mawkyrwat and Wahkaji is 57 Kms but it takes nearly three hours to cover over bumpy roads. Yet people from Wahkaji have to regularly come to Mawkyrwat braving the bad roads for their health needs and to buy essential supplies not available at the local market at Umdohlun. Wahkaji falls under Ranikor constituency in South West Khasi Hills. It was represented by Martin Danggo for four terms but the people of Wahkaji say he has never visited them. This means he is not even aware of the plight of the people in a part of his constituency. Fortunately for the people of Wahkaji, Danggo who won from the Congress Party in the 2018 elections decided to join the NPP four months after he was elected (possibly with the promise of getting some cushy post from the ruling party). Danggo lost to Pius Marwein of the UDP. And the people have no regrets whatsoever because they say Marwein has visited the village at least eight times since he was elected. He takes keen interest in the development of the area and he is ‘at least trying his best’ people say. That’s a good certificate for any serving MLA.
The reason Wahkaji is deprived of good roads is because pressure groups decided they were not going to allow the two-laned Nongstoin-Wahkaji road to be built as that might facilitate uranium mining by the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL). Indeed uranium prospecting, euphemistically termed as “exploratory mining” had been going on for at least two decades. But protests from the villagers and pressure groups have put paid to the UCIL’s attempts to mine the ore. But the question that remains unasked is whether any individual or group has the right to halt development? Are the protests against roads or railways based on practical considerations or emotional hiccups? The people of Wahkaji today regret having joined the protest against the two-laned highway which would have better connected them to Nongstoin and Mawkyrwat and speeded up their journey to Shillong, apart from creating livelihood opportunities.
The villagers say that they were told by pressure groups that the highway is actually to facilitate uranium mining which would be disastrous for their health and well-being. But could they still not have protested against uranium mining and also demanded good roads? No, they were not given that choice. So who is to be held accountable for holding back Wahkaji with about 150 households and a population of roughly 800 people and several other villages beyond? Who is to be held responsible for the utter lack of facilities and employment opportunities? One can see the bald hills as one passes through the different villages from Mawkyrwat onwards until one touches Wahkaji. It is evident that the only exports from the village which yield some kind of earning is cutting down trees for charcoal production. Tree felling for timber is also rampant. Stumps of trees stand out as a testimony of the destruction to the environment, but who cares when there are no alternative livelihoods. On the way we come across several pick-up vans carrying broomstick to the markets of Shillong. They grunt their way through the dirt road which barely has space for one vehicle to pass.
All around is a desolate barrenness. I asked the people of Wahkaji what they grow in the village. They say nothing grows other than broomstick. In areas beyond Wahkaji which have rivers flowing through in the plains below, people grow potatoes and peas. One also crosses an occasional rice field on the way out of Wahkaji through to Markasa – where one then touches the Nongstoin highway.
The questions that remain unanswered are what if someone should need to be evacuated from Wahkaji and adjoining areas due to health reasons? Might the person not die on the way due to the poor road condition? And worse, if it’s a pregnant woman who has gone into labour then the plight is unimaginable. The reality is that each time people of Wahkaji need to do a thorough health check up such as getting an ultra sound or CT Scan done, they have to come to Shillong since all those facilities are not available in the district headquarters. It is the private hospitals in Shillong that have all the equipment and the specialist doctors but it also means that they have to pay for every service from their meagre earnings.
The remains of the abandoned road project which includes the office space and residential quarters of the company employees which is half complete has now come apart. The brick work has disintegrated. Much money would have been invested in creating that space now abandoned. Who pays for such abandoned projects? Above all who pays for the years of under-development; the shattered dreams that inflict a heavy cost on people?
Citizens of Meghalaya have long been held to ransom by different pressure groups. While civil society action is necessary in a democracy, at the end of the day the question to be asked is, “Who do the pressure groups represent?” If we have elected representatives then why should pressure groups call the shots? Where do they derive their mandate from to stall a development project? The youth of Wahkaji have no livelihoods. Most of them come to Shillong looking for some kind of labour. Does anyone care to think of their plight? Does the MLA have a plan to develop this desolate piece of land held to ransom by anti-uranium groups? Fight the uranium lobby by all means but no one has the democratic right to stop a road from being built.