Editor,
Is there such a term as “Amused Outrage” in the English language, and if not then Shillong Cantonment Board through its most diligent, hard working and apparently out-to-entertain bent of mind Executive Officer must be congratulated on its ability to rouse such a feeling in our minds. I of course am referring to the news item titled “City College asked to pay Rs 45-lack property tax”, Shillong Times 8th August 2022. I mean is this guy serious? Is he really so officially perturbed by the presence of this women’s college, imparting knowledge and education to girls of this backward state, that he has to dig up his records in pursuit of his miserable property tax? If the Army is so desperate and fund starved then it should go all hog in collecting its rent and taxes being used by ungrateful civilians. The National Highway passes through Cantonment land right from Lukier Road upto civil Hospital point. I strongly therefore recommend setting up Shillong Cantonment Board (SCB) tax collecting check gates at each end of this stretch of road. Please don’t take my comments otherwise. I am simply assisting the SCB by drawing its attention to perhaps an overlooked and missed out source of revenue.
Oh by the way, may I also remind over zealous SCB officials that the Chinese are presently illegally occupying thousands of sq Kilometers of Indian territory both in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. We really need upright and courageous tax officials to send and deliver tax evasion notices to the PLA. Almost slipped my mind, there is also Pakistani Occupied Kashmir that urgently requires similar attention. Go for it Boy, tons of medals awaiting blinkered eyed babus who regardless of prevailing socio political realities, plod on to cause merry-hell wherever they can. Our Rule Book says so and therefore the ivory towers we built for ourselves must be infallible! On a more serious note I earnestly request our Chief Minister, our MPs in Delhi and our elected representatives not to turn a blind eye to this unnecessary humiliation being heaped on one of our oldest and prestigious Educational Institutions. The Defence Ministry must be made aware of this uncalled for and totally unnecessary piece of red tapism. I frankly believe that even if the SCB had a genuine issue with the land Lady Keane College is situated on, the matter could have been handled in a more sensible and diplomatic manner than through a show of insensitive bureaucratic hauteur.
Yours etc.,
Toki Blah,
Via email
Non-potable water in 21st century Meghalaya
Editor,
Salil Gewali has rightly pointed out in his letter (ST Aug 8, 2022) that the PHED still supplies muddy and murky waters to the residents in spite of charging water bills from the residents. Getting potable water is our basic right because it is the basis of our good health. If the Government in 50 years has not been able to provide the residents of the city with clean, pure water then what are we celebrating 50 years of statehood for and 75 years of India’s freedom? However, those of us in our 60’s remember the PHED scam that happened in Jaintia Hills in the early years of statehood. Later on the Greater Shillong Water Supply System in Mawphlang also became the centre of controversy. It was literally held to ransom by one single electrical engineer for many years. This has been Meghalaya’s sordid history. Show me one project that is free from scams and has been completed on time. Every single project is limping along and the time and cost overruns when calculated on all the projects will be running into thousands of crores of rupees. But then who cares? There is no pressure group or civil society worth its name in this state to pursue these cases to their logical end.
Apart from supplying murky waters which is a health hazard, there is also the question of our basic human rights as citizens being violated every single day. I was reading Toki Blah’s article on the Red buses that are now parked in every dingy corner of the city beginning from Mawblei up to Mawiong. They are a grim reminder of how a project should not be run. The agony about such badly run projects is that the initiator who gives such grand ideas on the projects with the most non-viable business model is never made to pay for the losses made. And the loss must run into crores of rupees because if we recall, those city buses that were part of the Shillong landscape used to last at least 20 years because they were well maintained and they were run on a model that made profit and had a robust enough margin for repairs and maintenance. The poor red buses were run with no maintenance because no one was held accountable for that. The so-called SHGs ran the buses only to make profit and to pay salaries to the driver and conductor. Nothing more than that! The buses were treated like sarkari assets for which the SHG running it had no responsibility whatsoever to lose sleep on.
If there were to be a stock-taking of all the wastage that this and successive governments in Meghalaya have been witness to and add to that the corruption that has happened on a grand scale since the 1980s then Meghalaya might lead the way; much more than even Nagaland perhaps. But then who cares? The same people who allowed these scams to happen; the polluted water to come through our pipes etc., might be re-elected in 2023. The very thought is depressing but we are a helpless lot. Alas!
Yours etc.,
AN Kharmawphlang,
Via email