By HH Mohrmen
“At the dawn of August 13 again while the Chief Minister was in Delhi, news of the death of Cherister Thangkhiew the former leader of the HNLC has shocked the whole state. The police claim that he was killed in self defence and the family of the deceased said otherwise.”
It is true challenges and problems are part of life. It shows that a person is alive or the social entity which includes the government is still alive and kicking. There is also a saying that only a dead person does not make mistakes. The true test of the character and strength of an individual also largely depends on how the person faces challenges; particularly on how one tries to prevail over the problems.
Some people tend to ignore problems and move on while others try to avoid facing them for fear of being unable to resolve them. But a true leader is one who faces challenges head-on and takes them by the horn. It is also true that this MDA government is facing a plethora of problems and of course all the problems are of its own making. It looks like this government has made more problems than those that it cares to solve.
On August 12 while Conrad Sangma the NPP President was inaugurating the National People Party’s national office in Delhi, Jowai witnessed a large public protest at Ïawmusiang. Foul smell emitted from the garbage heaps collected at different locations around the town which also permeate the whole Jowai, compelled the people particularly the residents of Dorbar Chnong Ïawmusiang to hit the street.
Incidentally Ïawmusiang is not only the locality where the biggest and oldest market in Jañtia hills is located, but this place also figures significantly in the history of the Jañtia rebellion led by u Kiang Nangbah. There is a locality which is part of the Dorbar Chnong called ‘Wah Nangbah,’ which literarily means below the Nangbah’s or below the house of the Nangbah. The point is that the hut of the Nangbah family to which u Kiang Nangbah belongs was located on the top of the small valley which is till today known as ‘Wah Nangbah. The place where the ancestors of Nangbah’s family’s huts were located then, now falls under the jurisdiction of Dorbar Chnong Tpep-pale.
It is said that U Kiang was a young man when he was chosen to lead the rebellion. If he was around thirty years old when the rebellion erupted in 1862, then he must have been born sometime in the early part of eighteen thirties. Till then there were only two localities in this area of Jowai namely Lulong and Ïawmusiang. Tpep-pale was created very recently by incorporating areas from Dulong and Ïawmusiang, hence the place where the huts is believed to located falls under Ïawmusiang.
The incident which marked the beginning of the rebellion was when the rebels under the leadership of U Kiang Nangbah burned the police station which again till today is located in the Ïawmusiang area. U Kiang Nangbah was also hanged by the British in front of the office of the Sub Division Office in Jowai which again till date is located in the same area. It was when the leaders of the locality declared that they are going to celebrate the 75th Independence day by organising Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav at the same spot where the British raised the scaffold to hang u Kiang Nangbah that rumblings began. The Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui who till the day before was in favour of the total ban of dumping of waste in the old landfill (understandably because it falls under his constituency) had to change his mind. The Minister in the MDA government who until the other day was behaving more like a constituency minister had to meet the seven villages and compel them to withdraw their protest.
The Jowai garbage issue may be over for now and the credit goes to Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui, the Deputy Commissioner and the CEO Jowai Municipal Board for making the deal. But the permission to dump the waste in the old landfill was only for three months. Hopefully Rymbui who is number three in MDA government along with the concerned officers will put their heads together and come up with a permanent solution to the issue. The question that begs the answer is whether three months is enough for the government to make new arrangements for disposing the garbage generated by the residents of the town?
Since the beginning of this crisis people were generous with their suggestions to start solid waste management to solve the problem but as usual it was a case of easier said than done. Suggestions came thick and fast but without specific solution to the problem. The garbage problem in one’s hometown has compelled this writer to try find out ways and means to solve this vexed problem.
Since 21% of household waste is kitchen waste which can be converted to compost or even animal feed, it is also therein that the solution to the problem can be found. There is an adage that for every problem there is a solution and oftentimes the solution is in the problem itself. A project to convert vegetable waste which is generated from households of the people to pig feed was pilot-tested recently. The outcome of the finding was very promising. It is not only that the method is simple and easy to operate but it is commercially viable too.
This project is also going to introduce segregation of waste at source because it involves segregating all vegetable waste from the kitchen in one bin and other wastes on the other. The Khasi Pnar like other tribal people consume pork regularly and in huge quantities and the state is compelled to import pigs from outside Meghalaya. Although pig rearing is a traditional livelihood activity of the people and also a profitable activity, it is mostly a subsistence activity. Very few have scaled it to a commercial scale and the main reasons that pig farmers do not expand their businesses is because feed is expensive and hence the business is not cost effective.
Waste to Wealth is a popular catchword and this project will generate income and also provide employment opportunities to members of the community. The feed produced will also provide nourishing food for the farmers’ animals and at a lower cost which will make the business cost-effective.
Getting enough manure and in time is another challenge that farmers are facing and waste from the household and markets in the town can be converted to manure. The compost produced will be organic or chemical free which will again add more value to the manure.
Disposal of waste should not have been a problem in the state if only our political leaders had tried to move out and explore beyond the comfort of their offices. It was reported that many trucks of segregated waste from Arunachal Pradesh are being transported to Dalmia for use as Refused Derived Fuel in the cement factory. If Dalmia cement plants at Narpuh are taking waste from other neighbouring states, what prevents the Government from sending waste from other urban areas of the state to the cements plants? In fact the Ostrich-like government (which cannot see its own feet) would be doing the company another favour if they can supply them the waste. Enough talking about waste. Let’s turn to another incident in the state which is a murder most foul and tragic.
At the dawn of August 13 again while the Chief Minister was in Delhi, news of the death of Cherister Thangkhiew the former leader of the HNLC has shocked the whole state. The police claim that he was killed in self defence and the family of the deceased said otherwise. Whatever may have been the circumstances, killing another human being cannot be accepted because every human life is precious and there is no justification whatsoever for taking another person’s life. We live in a world where dignity of human life is respected irrespective of the differences we have. Therefore violence by any actor cannot be accepted and even if one is to believe the government’s narrative that some of the surrenderees are becoming overground operatives of the banned organisation, the truth is in a democratic country the person still has the right to a fair trial.
This is not to question the intelligence agencies of the government. They may have gathered credible information about the illegal activities of the person concerned but taking away human life cannot be accepted. The question is how come the government failed to realise the unassailable truth that violence only begets violence. The government is already in deep trouble and it is now creating another problem for itself. So it is like the state is up in flames while the CM was dancing to the drumbeats in New Delhi.
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