By Patricia Mukhim
“The Chief Minister should now take the bumpy ride from Mawlyndep to Mawmaram to understand the plight of people there. For one, ordinary citizens don’t have luxury vehicles to cushion the bumps on their delicate backs and spines caused by what’s left of roads that are eaten up by the heavy rains because they don’t comply to specifications.”
Anyone who is not Shillong-bound and steps out to visit the villages of Meghalaya knows just how wretched the roads are. How I wish the Chief Minister travels to all these places with decrepit roads as he is now doing by visiting parts of West Khasi Hills (Wahkaji and Nongkhnum) among other forgotten destinations which are not attractive enough for tourists and are therefore left to wallow in their backwardness. The Chief Minister should now take the bumpy ride from Mawlyndep to Mawmaram to understand the plight of people there. For one, ordinary citizens don’t have luxury vehicles to cushion the bumps on their delicate backs and spines caused by what’s left of roads that are eaten up by the heavy rains because they don’t comply to specifications. Reason? The minister, engineer/s contractor have to necessarily get their share of the amount allotted for constructing the road. Open deal; no questions asked!
When one speaks to the villagers one realizes just how unaware they are of their rights. They believe that after they have voted a person, it is the responsibility of that “representative to ensure they have good roads, electricity, health care facilities and water supply – the key necessities for anyone to stay alive and pursue a livelihood. Meghalaya is inherently an agrarian state but how can the farmers’ produce be brought to the open markets without a road? Hence farmers now prefer to sell their products to buyers that come to the farm gate but who also decide the prices. Often the farmers don’t even get back their labour cost and capital investment in seeds, fertilisers etc.
Some farmers who have discovered the agency of “VOICE” and have developed the confidence to talk to Agricultural officers as equals and not be talked down to have benefited from that interface. But such are too few to make a difference by cutting the bureaucratic red tape. However, despite the somewhat gloomy picture that emerges when one thinks of rural Meghalaya and how distant the people are from the governance dispensing mechanisms, there are some bright sparks that give hope. I am fortunate to have met a few of such technocrats whose heart is with the people. Recently I traveled to Mawlyndep where the fish farmers were learning new fish-rearing techniques. To give them the basic awareness on the ‘Biofloc’ fish rearing technology is a young officer of the Fisheries Department. Listening to her animated conversation on a range of issues that beset the fish farmers was educative. The young lady had previously worked in the National Fisheries Development Board in the Central Government but wanted to return to the state to help develop the fisheries sector which has vast scope in Meghalaya, especially in areas close to the Umiam Lake which is now a natural reservoir both for Agriculture and Pisciculture since the soil left behind by the receding waters in winter is very fertile and supports the growth of winter crops.
Later when the young officer was speaking to the trainees, she was crystal clear, concise and articulate. She elicited questions from the participants and answered them with patience. Her demeanour was not that of a know-it-all government official – an attitude that is very off-putting. I learnt along with the fish farmers that the Biofloc fish rearing technique can be carried out in a smaller area and in a controlled environment and this was most suitable for those that have no land for digging ponds to rear fish.
But let me get back to the point I started with – the loss of voice of the rural folks. For some reason the MLA of a constituency can get away with rare visits if he/she finds time from his/her more pressing business of self-aggrandisement. This is Meghalaya’s most distressing predicament. No MLA resides in the Constituency unless he or she is from one of the constituencies of Shillong and its suburbs. Of the 7 MLAs who represent the constituencies of Shillong and its suburbs 6 live within their constituencies; one lives in another constituency while the rest of the 54 MLAs representing distant rural constituencies all live in Shillong (they include the 24 MLAs from Garo Hills). Whenever villagers need to make a representation about a road, electricity health or education problem they have to spend one whole day or more to come and meet their MLA/minister in Shillong. Should it always be like this? The problem with most or all MLAs is that they feel they have paid for the votes they got and their responsibility is therefore over. On the fifth year they will start visiting the constituency to sprinkle largesse from what is called the “MLA Scheme.” This evil Scheme is what ensures that MLAs continue to be voted back because people are so ignorant of the power they can wield and because they believe they are subservient to and obliged to the MLA for having given them Rs 5000-10,000 before the elections.
Our people also lack the imagination to think big for themselves and their children. Their imagination is stuck in a little whirlpool which traps them in poverty because they don’t believe they have the power to change things or to even speak up. The only ones who speak up closer to the elections are rabble-rousing wannabe MLAs whose only stratagem has been to create fear psychosis in the electorate but will not want to see them empowered enough to start asking searching questions.
Questioning is our birthright and contrary to the inhibiting Khasi culture which is hierarchical and patriarchal (women are not supposed to speak before a gathering of male members), questioning is the only way in which we can hold our MLAs/ministers accountable. They cannot talk down to us and pretend they know everything. All of us are vested with the same amount of wisdom and common sense as the MLAs and ministers are. But for this to happen we need to have selfless youth leaders who don’t belong to this or that pressure group but who feel a genuine sense of concern for the people in the rural outback and are inspired enough to work with them and to empower them with “VOICE.”
How can an elected representative be absent from his constituency for a full five years or come there like a migratory bird only when invited as chief guest while the rest of the time is spent enjoying the thrills of a five-star existence, riding flamboyantly on the most expensive vehicles that only the well-heeled can afford to flaunt. It is also the fatal flaw of people to elect someone from a wealthy family who does not know what it is to walk in the common man’s shoes; who lives not in a ‘home’ but a mansion; who does not know what it is to walk on a road strewn with boulders and pebbles or to be a pregnant woman in labour and be taken to hospital on that bumpy road to the point of losing the child due to the interminable jerks! That’s how tough life is for the average woman in Meghalaya living in the peripheries beyond the state capital.
Should we allow the votes in 2023 to be wasted in these self-centred, self-serving “representatives” who are more interested in promoting their own and their family members’ business interests. Enough is enough. We want motorable roads, a reliable water supply, electricity and healthcare. Thousands of crores of rupees have been sunk into this state in the past 49 years. Its time to take stock of things and to seek an account from every MLA past and present.
We need a new consciousness and a new youth group that is not extractive and extortionist in its methods. That alone can save Meghalaya!