Some officers work 24×7
A morning walker in the Motinagar forest area chanced upon a huge water pipe that had burst near the old bridge. The morning walker is an old resident of Motinagar but had been living in Delhi for several years now on account of his job. He is currently in Shillong for a vacation and never misses his tryst with the forests. But being a journalist, an activist and also donning many more hats, he has this habit of recording what’s not working and what ought to work. Many a time this gentleman has shared with friends his angst at seeing water pipes that had burst at the joints probably after being run over by a heavy vehicle. Now, Motinagar is not just any locality. The elite of Shillong live there. Central government quarters, residences of retired civil servants and a minister’s bungalow dot the landscape but few perhaps notice things the way this morning walker does.
On Sunday, after he had captured a picture of the burst pipe with water flowing freely onto the road, he sent the picture to a friend. That friend in turn sent it to a high-ranking civil servant with a request that something be done. Despite it being a Sunday, that officer managed to get plumbers to mend the water pipe. That prevented the water from being wasted even while people were not getting adequate water in their homes. It being a Sunday, the plumbers had to make do with crude implements to stop the pipe from leaking. In a WhatsApp world, pictures and messages travel fast. The officer sent back a picture of the repaired pipe to the mediator who in turn sent it by WhatsApp to the morning walker. His witty comment on seeing the picture is classic, “They’re applying a bandage where it needs a limb replacement. Very glad that Meghalaya is following the ancient Indian tradition of Jugaad.”
Thank you for the swift intervention officer. You know who you are!
Parking menace
Roads and bylanes in the capital town are occupied by vehicles, especially in the night hours. But we are not talking about traffic jams here. We are referring to the system of overnight parking on the city streets. On most occasions, vehicle owners park their two-wheelers and four-wheelers including SUVs on the roadside, sometimes occupying both sides of the narrow roads.
The precarious parking system in Shillong is a problem. House owners use every inch of their property for construction purposes ignoring the need for parking space and this promotes overnight parking on the roadside.
Considering that the streets and bylanes in Shillong are narrow, this could lead to problems in case of emergencies like fire incidents or medical needs. There is hardly any space left for ambulances or fire tenders to rush to the spot to attend to emergencies.
In Sikkim and Mizoram, a citizen has to compulsorily show proof of parking space or a garage before purchasing a vehicle and getting it registered.However, in Meghalaya, despite the perennial problem of traffic congestion, the number of vehicles is skyrocketing.
Vehicle owners express their helplessness at not getting adequate parking space inside their residential compounds. You can often see walls in the city bearing the painted message of “NO OVERNIGHT PARKING – By order STP” but they haven’t yielded the desired result.
On some occasions, some vehicles are clamped and fines realised but if you know someone from the Police department or any politician, the fine is more often than not waived off.
Roads are public property. Perhaps, the residents of this city have taken this seriously.
A prize of a kite
The demand for ILP in the state seems to be soaring in the sky, quite literally. The kite in this picture, contributed by a citizen, was found by kids after its thread was cut during the recent kite-flying contest in the city on this year’s Independence Day.
While we have seen numerous walls painted with graffiti demanding ILP across the cityscape, this fascinated most of the people who were at the venue where these kids and numerous others were flying kites. The message on the kite reads: “New era has begun. No ILP, no rest”.
Naïve kids laughed and barely even read it, yet treated the kite like a prize because of the attention it got.
They insisted on keeping the kite, as one of the rules of kite-flying is finders, keepers.
Over the years, we have seen people revel in the fervour of kite-flying in the state, especially on Independence Day, although this time around, COVID-19 and, of course, the rain played spoilsport.
This tradition of flying kite bears significance in the lives of almost every individual, even adults, who take out time at least once a year to step into action.
Now until next year’s contest, the kids will surely rave about how exceptional a kite they found — not big, not colourful, but ‘special’ — and keep looking for another one of such kites in the skies.