Editor,
In response to W Passah’s write up in the letter to the Editor dated March 29, 2022 under the caption “Inquiry won’t save one precious year” the undersigned would like to inform that the term “callousness” on the part of MBOSE is uncalled for. It is the sole responsibility of the school to register their students at Class IX and ensure they fill up their examination forms for the SSLC examination. MBOSE cannot be held responsible for the callousness of an institution towards its students. Further it is for information of all concerned that MBOSE had immediately taken necessary action.
Yours etc.,
T R Laloo
Controller of Examinations,
Meghalaya Board of School Education,
Tura
BJP’s Pyrrhic victory!
Editor,
In the last Assembly elections to the five states in the country, the BJP has won in four states. Consequent to this victory there was an unprecedented euphoria in the BJP camps across all the saffron-ruled states. To add icing to the cake, our Prime Minister Modi had taken a triumphalist procession on a visit to his home state of Gujarat in the aftermath of the outcome of the said elections. In parallel, on an objective analysis of the definitive outcomes of the seats won at the said hustings we can perceptively have an insight that in UP the BJP’s seats have surprisingly gone down from around 325 in 2017 to around 273 this year after a gap of five years; a loss of substantive 50 seats or thereabouts. This infers that while it won around 81% of seats in 2017 the same has plummeted to 61%. However, for the return to power the BJP must have been thankful to Owaisi’s party, AMIM, on the sly, where around 165 seats were won by the saffron party, the margins of victory ranged from mere 200 to 2000 and these are incidentally in the minority dominated areas! Some political pundits have naturally concluded that there was a tacit understanding between Owaisi and the BJP. A similar template of Bihar’s last state elections was now recast in UP. Had Owaisi not been in the fray, the SP and RLD combination could have upped the ante against the BJP.
And while taking stock of the Uttarakhand results, we find that in 2017 the BJP had won 57 out of the total 70 seats but in the last elections its seats strength has come down to mere 45. And wonders never cease that even the incumbent Chief Minister PS Dhami had to bite the dust as he was vanquished by a Congress rival from Khatima Assembly seat!
In respect of the Goa election results it’s believed that the core reason for BJP victory is because of the substantive split of opposition votes that paved the way for BJP’s unlikely triumph securing just half of the total number of seats. In Punjab the BJP was nearly obliterated. Manipur was the only state where BJP could notch up a simple majority. Suffice it to say that the BJP’s victory this time can be aptly dubbed as just a Pyrrhic victory
Yours etc.,
Jerome K Diengdoh,
Via email
Unnecessary harassment by GPO Shillong
Editor,
Through your esteemed daily I would like to express my grievance against the authority of the General Post Office Shillong regarding their restriction of not allowing any vehicles from outside into their campus. I just want to ask whether the campus of the postal department is someone’s private property or if it stands to render service to the people, because if someone has to go for some official work in the post office, they are not allowed to take their vehicles inside. On March 29, I faced a similar problem when they did not allow me in with my bike. As a result one of my important work remained undone. And the location of the office is such that I could not even park outside the gate as the Traffic Police could clamp the wheels any time. I believe the same problems are being faced by many members of the public. In this regard I would like to ask the authorities whether such a ridiculous decision is an official order from the higher authorities in Delhi or from the local authorities in Shillong.
In case it’s the former, we as members of the public have the right to see the order which needs to be published in the newspapers and other media platforms. Moreover in case a senior citizen needs to visit the post office, where will he/she park their vehicle? Or do the Postal authorities expect them to park their vehicles in Police Bazar and come walking all the way. On enquiring about the parking restriction I was informed by one of the persons stationed near the gate that some people just park their vehicles and disappear. In that case they should properly enquire and if needed check the documents but should allow those vehicles or two wheelers that have genuine reasons to visit the Post office to park there. Such restrictions can be imposed on a private property but the Post Office is a public utility and as such it is incumbent upon the authorities to look after the comfort of the public and stop such unnecessary harassment. They should realize that no one visits the post office or any public office unnecessarily but for some genuine work-related reasons. The Postal authorities should take steps to rectify this ‘no parking inside the premises’ order .
Yours etc.,
Premankur Dam,
Shillong-4