By Patricia Mukhim
‘‘An MLA should know exactly how each of the institutions – health, education, agriculture, horticulture are functioning. He/she should know which parts of the constituency face water supply hiccups, electricity problems and which areas need to be connected by better roads so that cash crops can find their way to the markets beyond the places where they are grown.’’ One challenge that the rural folks of Meghalaya face is that their MLAs are all Shillong-based. MLAs that are also ministers make flying visits to their constituencies and return to Shillong in the evening. Very seldom do they stay the night. Almost every MLA representing the people of Garo Hills, Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills has a home in Shillong. Some have newly acquired mansions after they became ministers in the MDA Government. Now that elections are knocking at their heads and their hearts have started pumping faster they visit their constituencies much more frequently just so that their faces register in their voters’ minds and they are not blanked out.
When these MLAs do visit their constituencies it is almost always a VIP visit. They hardly spend time talking to the hoi-polloi or spend a little time visiting the markets and generally talking to people there like he/she is one of them. There is always that air of self-importance even though many have done precious little for their constituencies. Take the case of Mawsynram. The roads leading to this area are still as narrow as they were 20 years ago whereas the roads leading to Mairang and beyond have received a facelift. The MLA who was probably born and brought up in Shillong and spent the larger part of his life as a bureaucrat based in Shillong hardly understands the pain of his constituents that have to negotiate these narrow roads on a daily basis. He does not have to suffer that pain as a well-heeled urban yuppie. . If he felt the pulse of the people he would know for instance that the Primary Health Centre at Lawbah which was completed at least two years ago and now has a doctor and other staff functioning there, is unable to admit patients needing hospital care; in other words to activate the in-patient department, although the beds are available. Why so? Because the Public Health Engineering Department( PHED) has not constructed the all-important drainage system. Whatever water flows from the hospital drains at the moment floods the surrounding grassy areas and creates a swamp there. This water is more than likely to seep to the nearby human habitations.
An MLA should know exactly how each of the institutions – health, education, agriculture, horticulture are functioning. He/she should know which parts of the constituency face water supply hiccups, electricity problems and which areas need to be connected by better roads so that cash crops can find their way to the markets beyond the places where they are grown. Let’s admit the fact that most of the government-run educational institutions in our state are functioning in the breach, in the absence of supervision and monitoring by the Education Department vide its inspectors. There is a huge chunk of children in the villages of Khasi and Jaintia Hills aged 10-12 years that are no longer in school but are tending to sheep and cattle. Isn’t this child labour at its worst? I recall a certain NGO some ten years ago raising a stink on child labourers inside the coal mines of Meghalaya. Why is that same NGO not focussing on child labour outside the coal mines? Is it because there is no one to fund on issues outside the coal mines? And what about the Child Rights Protection Council? Is it not the right of every child to be in school instead of grazing cows and sheep?
In the area of health-care, one wonders why the Director of Health Services cannot make a surprise visit to the PHCs and CHCs to see how they are functioning. Let’s admit one thing – without any supervision and accountability mechanism all institutions are not functioning to the optimum. On Thursday while doing research on the functioning of PHCs in some villages of East Khasi Hills the villagers said they preferred to go to a private doctor because the PHCs don’t give them medicines. They are told to buy medicines from outside. In some PHCs the stock of medicines are such that when they receive the medicines the window period of expiry is just about 6-7 months. If the medicines are not dispensed immediately they expire. Why does the Health Department acquire medicines with such a short expiry window? Some other PHCs say they have received hundreds of bottles of ‘turpentine oil.’ The doctors say that the turpentine oil is meant for joint pain. Funnily the bottle of turpentine has no claim about its efficacy or directions as to how to apply; how many times and all the other details that most medicine containers carry. From the manner in which the turpentine oil is being distributed it would seem that the majority of Meghalayans have joint pain. If that is so, then isn’t it time to check why so many suffer joint pain? Is it due to weak ligaments or Vitamin D deficiency or osteoporosis or arthritis or what? We have always known that the Health Department is also a money minting department. It is learnt that while the pandemic was a period of great fear, trepidation, anxiety and loss for many, for those manning the Health Department it was a time for making money. Since Covid was declared a health disaster and the intervention was more of disaster management, many of the routine protocols and observances for indenting and acquiring the necessary safety kits (sanitisers, gloves, masks, oxymeters, thermometers etc.,) and medicines were waived off and the norms relaxed.
The question is why are the MLAs in the present legislature not doing their homework to dig out these money making rackets in the Health Department. Now I wish to point out that there are senior bureaucrats manning the Health Department who I personally have a lot of respect for because they have identified several gaps in the health delivery system and are trying their best to remedy these. But the onus of acquiring medicines and other paraphernalia is the brief of the Director of Health Services and it has been our experiences over the years that all medicine indents and the ones who actually hobnob with medical representatives are actually senior doctors (technicians) and ministers and not bureaucrats. This is because MLAs representing rural Meghalaya just do not care enough to even raise questions that their constituents would like to.
Take the example of Pius Marwein representing Ranikor constituency with 127 villages, some very distant and poorly connected to the district headquarters. We hardly hear of him taking up any issue of substance since elected in August 2018. And because he belongs to the UDP, a coalition partner of the MDA Government his lips are sealed in the Assembly. He too lives in Shillong and does not have to undergo the daily grind over backbreaking roads like the one to Wahkaji, that his constituents have to. This is the tragedy of electing an urban based MLA to take on the onus of a very backward rural constituency.
As election date draws near there is a palpable yearning for change by those who understand that they have been short-changed by every government in the past 50 years. Indeed there is a paradox to the longings of such people because they seem to be in a minority. The large majority of voters are sharpening their knives for the kill. The money that will be floating around during election campaign time will delete all angst for development. Their memory banks will be temporarily short-circuited because nothing else matters except money. Even in the villages when people are asked as to who they perceive to be the winning candidate, they smirk and say, “ Whoever has money to throw around.” Money therefore is the grease that runs the election wheels.
In these next four months sitting MLAs from distant constituencies will be seen visiting their constituents more often, only to deceive once elected. One would expect outrage from voters that have been ignored if not conned. But no, history repeats itself. We truly get the government we deserve from sleepwalking, apathetic voters with no idea of the future they want. No wonder the noted sociologist, Durkhiem had said that he is sceptical of the power of unaided reason to penetrate the complexities of social and moral reality. In this case Durkhiem should have added the political realities too!