By Manas Chaudhuri
After half a century of Meghalaya, for a large segment of her citizens, there is no ease of living. Look any which way, the citizens’ daily grind for meeting basic necessities of life has barely changed. This is true across the state. Leave alone rural areas, even in Shillong, palpably there is no guarantee of getting equitable water in taps, 24×7 power supply, dependable primary health care facility, basic education system, good roads and public transport system, to name only a few. This is the cumulative effect of lack of long-term planning based on a citizen-centric policy framing—a task reposed on the State Planning Board whose role largely stands devalued today. In fact, looking at its non-performance, it will be hard to dismiss critics who call the Planning Board “a highly decorated wooden horse that is taking the state nowhere”. Indeed, there is something terribly wrong with the system.
It’s a pity that the Planning Board has been converted into a political rehabilitation centre. The pattern of appointment of chairpersons of the Board over the past few decades will buttress this conjecture. In 1972, when Meghalaya came into being, the first chief minister Capt W.A.Sangma was himself the chairman of the Board, implying the importance of planning for the nascent state. Capt Sangma handpicked some thinking minds to frame policies on how the state should be run. The trend continued until 1981 when B.B.Lyngdoh assumed the office after relinquishing the CM’s post under the “50-50” power sharing deal with Capt Sangma. Ever since no serving CM has taken the steering wheel of the Board thereby diluting the importance of effective long-term planning. While a number of ex-CMs (D.D.Pugh, D.D.Lapang, P.A.Sangma, Salseng Marak) donned the office, in 2000 even an ex-MLA (B.G.Momin) was appointed as its chairman! What is most striking, however, is that a host of political appointees have conveniently packed the Board. A number of additional posts, like Co-chairman, Deputy Chairman etc., were created merely out of political expediency.
An opaque Board
There would have been no issue with such appointments had the Board done justice to the weighty task of planning for the state’s development. Somehow, the functioning of the Board has seldom come into public gaze. Unlike in the formative years, when the press would be welcome to witness the proceedings, over the decades, the scrutiny of the output of the Board has gone out of the window. Complete opacity seems to have engulfed it. After two decades of silence, in December 2021, the Board was in the news for all the wrong reasons. A ruling coalition MLA (Saleng Sangma) made a frontal attack on the Board for its utter failure to perform. In a hard-hitting letter to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, the legislator, who was then holding the post of Deputy Chairman of the Board, wanted it dissolved on account of its abject failure. The CM responded promptly by removing the chairman (Lambor Maligniang) and appointing one of his party men (Abdus Saleh). The point one is trying to make is that in the process, the Planning Board has become a revolving door for politicos and thereby rendering planning the first casualty.
The exceptions
The only exception is perhaps the period under B.B.Lyngdoh and P.A.Sangma when things were visibly happening and everybody took the Board with all seriousness. By a fair degree, P.A. Sangma’s stewardship of the Board will be remembered for the unflagging attention to details while defining the thrust areas and making sure that the decisions were based on ground realities. The elder statesman, who was a hard task master, undertook tours of the districts, held meetings both with public and the serving officers and saw to it that the decisions were incorporated in the state plan. P.A. Sangma made sure that the Press team accompanied him during his tours of the districts. This ensured that the public was kept informed about the new initiatives of the Board. This is how the subsequent Planning Boards should have functioned. Also gone are the District Planning Boards that existed during the 70’s and 80’s. Every district would have its micro planning exercise done under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner with all MLAs belonging to the district as members. The decentralized and district-specific focus immensely helped in coming out with a flurry of recommendations for the state body to incorporate.
Chinese example
The value of good planning can be quite astonishing. The critically acclaimed Chinese long-term planning is a case in point. China’s Yunan Province, lying in the remote south-west corner adjoining Myanmar, is considered to be the most “backward” region of the Dragon Nation. Astonishingly, Yunan’s capital city of Kunming wears the looks of a metropolis bedecked with high-rise buildings, flyovers, six-lane roads, expressways, public facilities of international standards et al—the like of which is unthinkable anywhere in the Northeast. The languid city Kunming would remind us of Shillong on a day of Bandh—sparse pedestrians, scanty vehicles on the streets and unhurried life— which seemingly do not justify the huge investment on infrastructure. Ask any Chinese person, they will tell you that their country’s planning mantra is not to think of today’s requirements but to plan ahead for the next 25 years!
While the Chinese example may be too odious in the context of the development of Meghalaya, the underlying message of the value of effective planning can hardly be missed. Surely, it is time for rebooting the Planning Board. The trick is to identify the core areas of developmental thrust for the next 25 years. A perspective plan needs to be in place to determine where the state wishes to be by 2050. During the first half a century, the state got bogged down because of myriad social, political and governance issues. It’s time to turn a new leaf. Let the Planning Board craft a road map by addressing the basic issues that affect the life of the man on the street. Contentious issues like railway connection, augmenting air travel facilities, which are capital intensive, or even industrial activities per se, do not help much in making living easy for the hoi polloi.
The Planning Board will have to think out of the box in solving the pressing issue of the burgeoning traffic snarls in Shillong. While the government of the day had shortlisted ample measures for decongesting the over-crowded Capital town, there was no mention of creating a Ring Road around Shillong. This singular step bears the potential to take the traffic load off the arterial roads of Shillong. While on the subject of roads, discerning citizens will be dismayed by the lack of foresight of our planners. Take the example of the arterial road leading to New Shillong Township. It’s a telling commentary that this important road is a mere two-lane road, when it should have been at least a four-lane road in anticipation of a rise in traffic. That in just two decades, the government is compelled to widen the road, should bring home the lack of foresight of the planners.
Buffer Zone
It is never too soon for the planners to seriously consider the idea of creating an economic buffer zone for facilitating free trading and commercial activities somewhere in the foothills of Ri Bhoi closer to the plains of Assam. The buffer zone can also help in decongesting Shillong and at the same time offer new business opportunities for local entrepreneurs. It can also turn into a hub for trading on agri-horticultural produce of Meghalaya. The area can also be considered for locating new professional colleges like medical or engineering colleges, private universities or niche institutions. Being a Sixth Schedule area, the idea can be a win-win for all, only if planned by cutting all corners. Railway connection or not, the buffer zone can become the new hot spot for growth away from the uplands and closer to a bustling Guwahati, the gateway to the northeast.
It is aptly said that “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail”. Meghalaya cannot afford to fail her people any more. It’s time to plan for the future and get out of the rut of merely living for today.
The writer can be reached at [email protected]