Editor,
After a year of anxiety and apprehension of the first wave of Covid-19, a second wave is staring at us and a lockdown appears imminent. With the spike in cases across the country, hospitals are overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients and staff are stretched thin. Many states have raised an alarm over shortage of beds and oxygen supplies. Schools are being shut down and night curfew is being imposed in different states. The economy is already in shambles and another imposition of a blanket lockdown means the livelihoods of people will be destroyed. A micro lockdown is the way forward, keeping in mind that cases do not rise exponentially.
In February this year, India’s election authorities announced key elections in five states where 186 million people were eligible to vote for 824 seats. Campaigning had begun in full swing and a month later things began to unravel. India was in the grip of a devastating second wave of the virus and cities were facing fresh lockdowns. Just when we thought our fight against the virus was over, it came back and hit us even harder. By mid-April, the country was averaging more than 100,000 cases a day. Despite the surge in cases, politicians continue to hold mass rallies across the country for state elections. Covid-19 norms are being flouted by thousands of people, thus, keeping everyone at risk.
Are Covid-19 guidelines just for citizens and not political leaders? Why are elections being prioritised when they could have been deferred? It is heart wrenching to see images of dead bodies piling up at crematoriums and people losing their loved ones circulating on social media. For many families, it’s an endless wait before they even get a bed at a hospital or find a place for burial.
Meanwhile, the government at the Centre has been facing flak from the Opposition for not sensing the danger despite repeated warnings by experts. However, BJP leaders countered by stating that the elections cannot be blamed for the COVID spike. While politicians are involved in a spat for brownie points, it is always the citizens that eventually suffer.
Yours etc.,
Steven Marbaniang,
Via email
Lockdown and our PM
Editor,
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday April 20 evening while addressing the nation, appealed to the State Governments to use lockdowns as a last resort, so that economic activities can continue. This is in sharp contrast to his own action to impose sudden and strict nation-wide lockdown on March 25, 2020, with a notice of just FOUR hours. This brought immense hardship on the people of the country.
Tuesday’s appeal by the Prime Minister is a tacit admission of the grave mistake and hara-kiri created on the nation, over a year back. Recently, mass election rallies were allowed to go on, and many of these were addressed by the PM himself. Moreover, a super-spreader, but avoidable, event like the Kumbh Mela was allowed to take place.
The Union Government continues to make mistakes after mistakes to ensure that pandemic spreads rapidly, and bring hardships to the people of the country. The country and its people deserve better.
Yours etc.,
D Bhutia
Guwahati – 24
Why the frequent power cuts?
Editor,
Recently the MeECL announced that they will take strict action by cutting off electricity to those houses/establishments that have not paid their dues for a very long time and that the step indeed is a necessary evil. The power situation in Meghalaya is very serious and defaulters need to be fined, punished and if necessary even taken to court because electricity isn’t something that’s free or cheap to produce. However, if there are defaulters in payment of dues there are also those who have been regularly paying their bills without any delay. They deserve uninterrupted power supply. But it seems like the Corporation has failed in that aspect. With over 10-15 power cuts daily lasting from a few minutes to several hours, even on a sunny day the consumers are losing patience.
Whether these power cuts are necessary or due to poor management is not known but MeECL has to ensure that those paying their bills regularly are assured of uninterrupted power otherwise the Corporation has to refund us the money we invest in other sources of light such as inverters, candles, torches, lamps etc.
We are in a contract with MeECL. If they are providing us electricity then we are also paying them money for that. By not providing us with uninterrupted power they are breaching that contract. But it is equally true that defaulters who don’t pay their electricity bills regularly have also broken the contract and they should be punished for that.
Yours etc.,
Reakor Shisha Kharkrang
Upper Shillong,
Will we see reforms in GHADC?
Editor,
Despite the chaos and protest from every corner of Garo Hills by some NGOs, the GHADC election has finally come to a close with the Congress Party emerging as the single largest party. The main reason for the protests and rallies was because political parties gave tickets to non-Garo to contest the GHADC election. This protest was felt throughout Meghalaya and nearly all the NGOs took part in protesting against those political leaders who gave party tickets to non-Garos in GHADC election especially against Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma as he is the national president of the NPP and also the Chief Minister. He had all the powers to decide whether or not to give tickets to non-Garos. If his party had refrained from setting up non-Garo candidates then other parties would have followed suit. After the result of GHADC election, all the NGOs and people of all Garo Hills cheered for those candidates who won the election especially for Bernard Marak and Nikman Marak as they are well known for their leadership among the youth and because they supported the NGOs during their protest.
But we are shocked to see that Nikman Marak has joined the alliance led by the NPP – the Party he was dead against before the polls. We are doubtful if a leader like him who had strongly opposed the corruption in GHADC under the NPP could serve the people. Now questions arise as to what made him join the NPP alliance. Is it Money or Power? How can Garos believe the NPP yet again after the previous EC led by it had not paid the GHADC employees’ salaries for 33 months?
Nevertheless, we Garos are keeping our eyes open to witness once again whether the present EC will be capable of reforming the GHADC in the coming five years.
Yours etc.,
Joshua Marak,
Via email