Editor.
A video clip showing children standing in the sunny, humid weather and collapsing one by one during the Independence Day celebration at Polo ground has gone viral. It reeks of cruelty by the school administration and shows how shabbily and rudely the district authorities treat young ones in such a scenario. Why should children be made to stand for hours listening to bombastic speeches which have little or no impact on the audience. In fact it sounded like an election rally. This also goes to the other personnel of the police department and armed forces who are and should be treated equally as well. This is not Right to Equality, this is utter rudeness and unjustified harassment.
While provision to allow them to sit in a tent where they can get some shade would have been humane, making them stand in that kind of condition is nothing short of inhumanity while nincompoops sit in comfort. This is not the kind of Independence Day that we should be celebrating. National day celebrations are not about VIPs but about “We The People,” but where has that important part of the Constitution disappeared?
Yours etc..
Dominic S. Wankhar
Via email
Illegal check-gate set up by KHADC
Editor,
I wish to inform you that in the last two days there has been illegal collection by KHADC from trucks and other smaller vehicles coming from Assam to Meghalaya at Umdihar, Ribhoi district. How can the KHADC set up gates and collect money at the rate of Rs 200 per vehicle and under what law? And who has given the KHADC the permission to collect the toll and when was the tender for the check gate floated?
As it is, today the prices of essential commodities in the markets have spiralled. Add to this the illegal collection and prices will further escalate.
I therefore request the media to take up this matter and bring it to the notice of the State Government and the Meghalaya High Court so that this illegal collection along the highway is stopped forthwith and that those involved should be arrested.
Yours etc.,
Kmensi Kharkamni
Lawbyrwa Umsning
Umiam dam & bridge in danger
Editor
The entire North Eastern Region and Shillong in particular was jolted on the eve of Independence Day when an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale hit the region. Fortunately there was no report of any damage or casualty. Here the question is that had the earthquake been of higher severity (God forbid) what would have the effect in Shillong and particularly the Umiam Dam which is already weak and the impact can well be imagined.
This is a warning sign to the Government to take immediate steps and think of an alternative solution. A number requests in the past had been made in this context by the people but it appears that the Government is not considering the future of the Dam with any seriousness In case of any damage to the Dam, it will leave Shillong totally cut off from the rest of the country and the fate of Shillongites will be in complete jeopardy. It is an earnest request to the Government to take some concrete steps at the earliest to create an alternative route on a war footing.
Yours etc.,
SL Singhania,
Via email
Status of ECI must be beyond doubt & its purity maintained
Editor,
The status of the Election Commission of India should remain beyond reproach since as many as 108 countries had deputed their delegations to our country to study the electoral process of India. Some months ago the Supreme Court had advised the Government to adopt the selection process of Election Commissioners but now Government has come up with a new selection process where the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is excluded from the process. Previously the Supreme Court had raised objections that a person who has been nominated by the Government cannot be expected to be independent and neutral. Now the view of the Government is that if an Election Commissioner is nominated by CJI then in case of litigation against an EC the CJI may not remain neutral. Interestingly, the Bill not only overturned the SC verdict but was not part of 31 bills listed for passage during the session. Four years ago too when the Bill for abrogating Article 370 was presented in Rajya Sabha no Opposition member was aware about it. As per version of Ghulam Nabi Azad who was leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha he remained sitting on stairs of Rajya Sabha for four hours but was not shown on Rajya Sabha TV.
The Bill introduced by the Government in the Rajya Sabha seeking to exclude the CJI from the panel to select the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners is deeply flawed. In seeking to do away with the non-partisan presence of a third member like the CJI along with the Prime Minister, who heads the panel, and the Leader of the Opposition, it attempts to undermine the very democratic foundation of picking executives to oversee the election process in autonomous and neutral roles. The change being contemplated now will provide the worst possible optics to the appointment of election officials from among a set of chosen bureaucrats or others by a panel of government officials.
No system of picking officials to the EC may be perfect and nothing can guarantee that an official once chosen will not behave in a partisan manner. But the idea of an autonomous Election Commission, presided over in its history by a few dedicated bureaucrats, who withstood all kinds of pressures from ruling dispensations in states and at the Centre, to bring fairness into the poll process, is being upended by a total takeover of the system of appointments.
The downgrading of the status of the EC members is another change that must be addressed before the Bill is allowed to become law. In all fairness, the Government should reconsider the proposed change by which any ruling party at the Centre will have unfettered say over who mans the EC with a Cabinet Minister as the third member of the panel.
It is generally seen that the selection of CEC or EC by the government has been problematic due to various reasons prevailing at each time. Presently it is felt that such an appointment weakens the institutional apparatus and hence there was a need to insulate the system against political and/or executive interference. This was on the lines of the recommendations of the Law Commission’s 255th Report of March 2015, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission in its fourth Report of January 2007,the Dinesh Goswami Committee Report of May 1990, and Justice Tarkunde Committee Report of 1975.
A day before the monsoon session concluded the Government tabled a Bill which retains the collegium system, but replaces the CJI with a minister appointed by the Prime Minister. If passed by the Parliament it would restore the prerogative on selection of ECI members back to the political executive.
The Supreme court had already emphasised that the purity of the election process must be maintained to preserve democracy or else it would lead to disastrous consequences. Now both the Government and Supreme Court should play constructive roles towards this direction.
In March this year the Supreme Court had done what successive governments shied away from. The five-judge Constitutional bench unanimously decided to take away the sole prerogative of selecting these top election officers from the executive. The court emphasised that the purity of the election process must be maintained to preserve democracy or else it “would lead to disastrous consequences.”
When the G20 conference is being held in India which claims to be the largest democracy the impression should not get out that there is friction between the Government and Supreme Court over selection of Election Commissioners.
Yours etc.,
Yash Pal Ralhan,
Via email