Editor,
It has been a great relief since the operation of the Shillong-Kolkata flight and vice versa from Umroi Airport by Indigo Airlines. It has reduced the travel time considerably. However, in the last few weeks booking for the Shillong -Kolkata route has become nightmarish. If one goes to the Indigo website goindigo.in it always shows “flights on these dates are not available.” But if a return flight is booked from Kolkota to Shillong and vice versa, flights are available for the return journey from Shillong to Kolkota. But if one were to book a one-way flight from Shillong to Kolkota on the same day the portal shows, “flights on these dates are not available.”
I request the authorities concerned to look into these anomalies so that a direct flight on Indigo Airlines is available for booking on goindigo.in. website for Shillong-Kolkata route. Other flight booking websites show only Alliance Air operating on the Shillong- Kolkota route, but it is not a direct flight with two to three stoppages before reaching Kolkota. This is rather inconvenient.
Yours etc.,
Dr Eladbor Laloo
Shillong- 14
Treachery of the highest order
Editor,
Apropos the letter ‘Perfidious politics’ by Mr Toki Blah (ST Dec 30, 2021) the HSPDP had not only betrayed the people of Garo Hills but had shown no gratitude to Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma who had made them ministers against all odds, as the INC should have been invited to form the Government considering it had the single largest majority. What has made the HSPDP or for that matter the UDP so blind to all the acts of omission and commission of the NPP is really a mystery of mysteries. The NPP is nothing but the BJP in regional uniform. And we should know that it was courtesy the Election Commission of India (ECI) and our prime minister that the NPP with a lone MP in a house of 540, gets the status of a national party. What has the MDA achieved since 2018? There is nothing to gloat about. In fact there are disappointments on all fronts.
And to demand a Khasi and Jaintia state out of Meghalaya goes to prove that the HSPDP is not aware of the Constitution. Even if Delhi feels for the unjustified demand, what about the total number of voters in one constituency? Hardly 10,000 and the electorate would be doomed to succumb to money power while the state is devastated. Why are we not ashamed to look at Bihar poll results? There the winner wins by a margin of 1,50,000 votes which is equal to the total votes of MP in our state. And they call themselves the representatives of the people! Worse is that people of integrity and honesty who yearn to serve and raise this badly run state to its height of glory and to ease the pain of the have-nots will never contest elections because they cannot afford to throw money around. But who is the loser in all of this? It is the state that sinks lower and lower in all departments be it education or health or transport or agriculture or qualities of lives.
Unless the electorate reject these freebies and incentives thrown indiscriminately before polling without understanding that these politicians will take back more than what they have invested, the real democracy enjoyed at one time would become a mirage.
Yours etc,.
W.Passah
Nongkrem.
Weird idea of “Acche Din“
Editor,
Within the first 14 years of India’s independence, as many as 5 IITs had started their journey of excellence — all under the stewardship of Jawaharlal Nehru who possessed the vision of building the “Temples of modern India.” Yet today by standing right on the floor of Kanpur IIT (1959), it is being announced that the “first 25 years after India’s independence have been wasted”! Is it the joke of 2021 or this millennium!
Despite the relentless anti-Nehru/Congress campaign armed with the coinage, “Nothing happened prior to 2014,” the fact remains that right from major dams and hydro-electric projects to steel plants and other industries, extensive railway infrastructure to reputed educational and medical institutions to IT sector — the whole infrastructure of the society have been set up by the preceding Congress Governments led by the much-maligned Nehru-Gandhi family or PV Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh! In contrast the regime of “Good Days,” is far from coming up with a single constructive project worth mentioning. On the contrary the carefully nurtured banking system has been devastated. The BSNL, Air India and the health of Indian Railways is also now lying in tatters! Even highways are being handed over to private players! When the policies of earlier regimes centered around job generation, that of the present regime seems hell-bent on shrinking job opportunities resulting in achieving a record of joblessness around the country! And as if sprinkling salt upon the wounds of the ever-increasing unemployed lot, they are being advised to start pakora shops!
And the last nail got in the coffin of creating jobs through the “historic bold” demonetisation process and the flawed GST has robbed the livelihoods of millions of wage earners and disrupted small enterprises! The less said about the systematic devastation of the economy the better! Perhaps the only “contribution” of the harbingers of “New India” is to divide the nation through brute communal polarization, hate-filled cuss words and violence with the religious minorities and Dalits being the most victimized and persecuted lot, often at the expense of their lives! And, of course we should be indebted to the project of “restoring national confidence” through Kashi Vishwanath corridor, Grand Ram Temple, Gigantic Patel statue, Bullet trains and most importantly Central Vista!
God save India from such “restoration of national confidence” if it continues for the next 25 years !
Yours etc.,
Kajal Chatterjee,
Kolkata