By Patricia Mukhim
As someone who has been privileged to use this space since 1987 before the privileged, entitled millennials were born, now as editor of this newspaper it is very heartening to receive some well-researched, incisive articles critiquing the MDA government from younger writers. The MDA, by the way, is a coalition of the UDP, BJP, HSPDP, PDF and NCP led by the National Peoples’ Party (NPP). The acronyms for the above coalition partners will suffice since people in those parties don’t really live up to their fancy names. These coalition partners have conveniently ditched their senior partner the NPP at the last gasp because they need to cleanse themselves of the sins heaped on the MDA of which they were an integral part. Having been in politics for so long these political parties cannot be so naïve that they do not know the meaning of ‘collective responsibility.’ The MDA which includes all the above partners needs to be held accountable and answerable for every scam, including the rice scam, power scam, the infamous collapse of the State Assembly dome, the misappropriation of an official building construction fund by an AIG rank officer of the Police Department and perhaps more that are yet to surface.
The MDA Government has since its inception allowed illegal coal mining and transportation because the important members of the NPP and UDP are themselves coal mine owners. In December 2018, nine months after the MDA assumed power the Ksan Mining tragedy that claimed some 15 lives happened. This had created national and international headlines with the navy divers coming in to try and rescue the trapped miners but to no avail. The MDA government, which includes all its partners and not just the NPP, have never called out the illegal mining of coal and its transportation. On the contrary the Government was the chief facilitator and the police were used to facilitate the passage of coal bearing trucks. A full-fledged money collection machinery was in place. The mine owners had to pay at least Rs 90,000 for every truck that was allowed rites of passage. Even today there are coal trucks passing on the highway via Assam. The NGT and the Meghalaya High Court have been at pains to stop this smuggling but the coal trade is so lucrative that coal mine owners are willing to take all the risks. This has been a defining saga of the MDA government. All its claims of having achieved outstanding self-assessed marks in Agriculture, Health, Employment through entrepreneurship et al have paled into insignificance when law and order have taken a nosedive. How can any Government allow illegality of such a degree and use a law enforcing agency to bend the law. And mind you all the parties including pressure groups are part of the largesse collected from illegal coal mining. So the claims of these groups that they will die for their people is a lot of bunkum! There’s a saying – No one is as blind as the one who refuses to see. So pressure groups are paid to zip their mouths. Those of us who have watched these groups for decades know why they pick and choose issues.
Many have pointed out the pathetic human development indices. It only takes a visit to rural Meghalaya to see that ‘development’ is a word that’s foreign to them. Women seem to do only one thing – give birth to babies and leave the future of those babies into the hands of God. So-called health and family welfare outreach by the State seem to have missed the mark. In rural Meghalaya, family planning is a taboo word. At the risk of being repetitive, maternal and infant mortality are both high and people take this as inevitable – a hand of fate. Poverty is all too evident and landlessness has been a matter of grave concern but neither the MDA Government nor its predecessors have had the moral fibre to speak of a cadastral survey. So afraid are politicians of being found out how many hectares of land they own that they would not even entertain that subject. Everywhere one travels but especially in Ri Bhoi district large chunks of land are now in the possession of the urban elite from Shillong. There is no control or regulation over sale of land. Community land is a scarce commodity today but no politician will ever raise this issue!
This, in fact, is Meghalaya’s great cover up that needs to be exposed. Since we have new entrants into the electoral field such as the Voice of the People Party (VPP) and KAM Meghalaya, I am straining my ears to hear them rake up this matter, which if brushed under the already rotten carpet will blow up on our faces because it will leave a good chunk of Meghalaya’s indigenous population landless. It is not without reason that BB Lyngdoh, a statesman who never made any money in his entire political career, wanted a cadastral survey to be conducted. Alas! Other short-sighted politicians shot down his proposal repeatedly without giving cogent reasons for their opposition.
There is no doubt at all that the MDA Government has been able to bring several schemes which were generously funded by the NDA Government at the Centre since the BJP is part of the coalition. The question is whether these schemes have been monitored and evaluated and who is doing that? Why does the central government not keep a tab on these centrally funded schemes? Why are timelines not adhered to? Kiren Rijiju as the junior minister in the Home Ministry came to Dawki in 2017 and assured that the Centre would assist in expansion of the Shillong-Dawki highway. Two years ago the NHIDCL came in to start the process but the project has been abandoned for now. It is learnt that the contractor found the project non-viable since extortion is at an all-time high. If the State Government cannot assure safe passage for a national construction company then the state has no right to development funds. And the Central Government is complicit as well for not taking stock of these projects. Only now are central ministers coming in to evaluate the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme.
If there is one area where the MDA Government is weakest it is in environmental conservation. Anyone can start quarrying anywhere. In the upper reaches of the Umkhen River is a one of several quarries owned by a minister in the MDA. The Umkhen used to supply water to thousands of households at one time. Now it is a poor shadow of itself having turned into a drain. The Assam Regimental Centre too has encroached into its banks even while the vendors in the area dump all their garbage into the river. No one really knows what the Water Resources Department is up to if it cannot reclaim these rivers. In Meghalaya, departments work in silos. Hence the PHED and Water Resources department function at cross purposes and don’t talk to each other. Meanwhile the Forest Department keeps coming up with regulations galore without being in the least bothered about implementing a single one. There is for instance a ban on charcoal production because this involves relentless cutting down of trees. But this trade carries on unabated because there is no alternative employment. A trip to Jaintia Hills will reveal the number of charcoal units from Barato onwards. In Eastern West Khasi hills a few minutes away from the Kyllang Rock there are several charcoal units and trees are felled mercilessly. You wonder what the Forest Department staff are paid for and why they are even needed if they cannot stop this rapid environmental destruction.
Political observers would have noticed that the Minister for Environment and Forests hardly speaks. He perhaps believes in action more than words. But what are those actions? That is a question that must be answered by the MDA Government. Does a Government which cares a damn for the environment and has hardly done anything to rejuvenate rivers in its 5-year term, deserve to be re-elected? Even the ban on single use plastic bags is short-lived. For those with environmental concerns the MDA Government has been a ‘non-performer.’ Period!