Editor,
The shattering news that an 18-year-old national-level Table Tennis player, Deenadayalan Vishwa lost his life in a road accident while on his way from Guwahati Airport to Shillong to participate in the 83rd Senior National Table Tennis championships beginning in Shillong on Monday, has cast a pall of gloom amongst participants. Along with Vishwa, the driver Dipal Das also died due to the impact. How is it possible for a truck to jump the divider and hit a car on the other side unless the driver was driving at breakneck speed.
Let’s face facts, there are no traffic or highway police visible except for those policemen posted at Umiam at the turn-off to UCC-Mawlyndep who stop trucks to check if they’re carrying coal. Isn’t it funny that despite the policemen posted at that junction the coal truck drivers still manage to pass through? That is one point. The second point is why the Table Tennis players have been asked to board a tourist taxi instead of being picked up by vehicles organized by the State Table Tennis Association? Would a Cricket team have had to come in a taxi too if it was playing a tournament in Shillong? Why are some sports treated differently from others? For the parents of the deceased table tennis player this is a shock they will find hard to recover from. We can only hope that the truck driver faces jail sentence for killing a bright young sportsperson who had come to Meghalaya with many hopes and dreams.
We urge the Meghalaya Police to investigate this case judiciously so that the driver who caused this accident receives due punishment befitting the crime. There are far too many accidents on the Shillong-Guwahati highway, many of them unreported. Coal trucks turn turtle all the time and no one really cares about investigating the cause of these accidents. It is high time for Meghalaya Police to take their duties more seriously.
Yours etc.,
John S Kharkongor,
Via email
Journalism at its zenith
Editor,
Kudos to NDTV for that Easter Sunday coverage of the St Nicholas Church in Kyiv Ukraine. Vishnu Som, the veteran journalist who with Ajai Shukla, the former Defense Analyst for India had covered the Afghan war should be congratulated, not to forget the camera crew as well. It takes a lot of courage to be doing journalism in a war zone but Vishnu Som and his team from NDTV have been at it, even entering the building abandoned by the Russians after they had devastated it.
The beauty of the mix of war and peace was demonstrated when the faithful were in St Nicholas church praying and singing during Easter. Amidst the land mines, the live shells of the Russians who had to flee and the graves where thousands of the dead lay buried with a good number of children, to hear the translated Ukraine language to English as “Yes Easter brings Peace and Victory,” fills every heart with hope. We pray that the Ukrainians will rise up in victory, reclaim their land and henceforth be more secure, more peaceful, stronger and more resolute than ever before.
Oh! If only journalism could win hearts in the political battlefield too then our wretched State of Meghalaya would one day rise like the Phoenix of the ancient Greeks; the eagle reduced to ash but out of the ashes will spring up hope and a change for the better.
Yours etc.,
M. Khyriem
Shillong 14
Covid returns, masks on
Editor,
National television is full of news about the rise in Covid cases and this time the virus seems to have affected school children. Cases have gone up in UP, Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala. Here in Meghalaya, more specifically Shillong we see people abandoning their masks and walking around carefree. Our tourism has opened up in a big way and all hotels are full. Tourist spots are crowded and all this is good for our sunken economy. The tourism sector was particularly badly hit. So it’s only fair that the State opens up all sectors of the economy. However, that does not mean throwing caution to the winds. As a state we have to be alert and not let our guards down.
Covid spreads through travel and that is the challenge. Now with the Umling testing facility having virtually winded up how do we know which traveller is Covid free and which ones have received their double doses of vaccination etc. To be alert is to be smart and not to be caught unawares if the cases do spike. Personally, I feel that visitors from abroad and from states that have registered a spike in Covid cases need to be screened and quarantined so that Meghalaya is on the safe side.
The State Health Department should also be stricter and insist that everyone stepping out of their homes should wear masks because it does look funny to see one person wearing a mask and another walking around unmasked in crowded areas like Police Bazar and other market places. Also it is seen that taxi drivers have started taking more passengers than they are allowed to and they are wearing their masks below their chins. And by Jove they have started to charge passengers a bomb! Here is one state where taxi drivers charge what they please. They are probably trying to make up for the loss during Covid but why at the poor passenger’s cost?
Yours etc.,
Rosemary Lyngkhoi,
Via email