By H H Mohrmen
At a workshop held recently, a former professor of a university said, “In Meghalaya we have governments but there is no governance.” The wise professor also clarified to the youths in the workshop, the difference between governance and government. He said it looks like the state of Meghalaya has not really experienced good governance since its inception. The question is how the politicians still have the audacity to contest for elections when they have not been able to provide good governance to the state? The very fact that the High Court of Meghalaya has to step on the toes of the government and direct it to ensure that its agencies serve the public that they are supposed to, is a glaring example of the lack of governance in the state.
Court intervention on
illegal transport of coal
That the Hon’ble High Court has to intervene in almost every activity of the state is one illustration that the government is not able to rule as per its mandate. In the last few years the Court spent many precious hours of its time trying to take the government to task with regards to the illegal transport of coal from the state which happened despite the coal ban. It is not that coal was transported by air and that it can happen without the knowledge and the support of the different agencies of the government like the Transport Department, the Police and the Directorate of Mining & Resources. It is only because of the Court’s intervention that the illegal transport has now stopped and the infamous group of people who benefitted from the illegal activities called the ‘High-level’ have also vanished into thin air.
The High Court also had to intervene on the issue of illegal toll gates and overloading of trucks despite the fact that there are 26 weighbridges and six weigh pads in the state. The Court ordered the implementation of stringent measures to ensure no overloading trucks plying on the roads in the State.
Court had to intervene even in road construction
The unfortunate situation in the state is such that the Court has to take the government to task even on issues like road construction and repairs. I mean what is the government expected to do if it cannot even construct a good road for the public. The sub-standard construction of the Jowai bypass by the company owned by one of the important members in the cabinet has to be condemned in the first place. Not even embarrassed with the construction which is sub-standard and not properly designed for the safety of the travelers, the bypass had to be repaired almost immediately. The audacity of this government to rule or rather misrule the state by constructing roads which are of poor quality is obvious from the fact that this same road was repaired last year and it is now in a pathetic condition.
The High Court in the case titled: Kynjaimon Amse Vs. National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and others has also pulled up NHAI for its negligence over the condition of National Highway 6. The Court has also taken cognizance of the negligence of the local officials of the state who failed to report the condition of the road in time. The major cause of this embarrassing situation is the fact that in the State of Meghalaya not only is there a deep contractor-politician nexus; the fact is the politicians themselves are the contractors. The politicians by default are contractors because they are engaged in contract work by using their family member’s name.
I think all politicians across party lines are engaged in contract works and sadly, they do not think that it is wrong or that there is a conflict of interest in the process.
Court intervention
on Jowai waste
Perhaps the most embarrassing situation is when the Meghalaya High Court had to intervene even in trivial matters like waste management. In the case titled: Synjuk ki Waheh Chnong Jowai Vs. State of Meghalaya and others, the Meghalaya High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W. Diengdoh directed the government to ensure that there is no piling up of waste or garbage in any place in Jowai till the waste disposal unit is commissioned. The waste issue in Jowai has grabbed headlines for many months in the last few years and yet the government was not able to resolve the issue. This then compelled a private citizen to go to the Court for resolving the issue. Unfortunately waste collection in Jowai is done as usual and segregation of waste at source is not implemented. The town waste management is now back to square one and the irony is that the citizens do not know where their waste is being disposed of by the Jowai Municipal Board.
Construction on the
banks of the river
Protecting the rivers in the State is one area which consecutive governments have failed. The once beautiful river which flows through the middle of the city would have been a natural beauty but for the lack of governance. The river is now not even a river but a drain which carries all the filth of the city. A similar fate awaits the other rivers in the State if we only rely on the Government and the respective Autonomous District Councils.
Now the Court in a case Cleanliness of Umiam Lake Vs. State of Meghalaya has ordered banning construction 50 meters from the river bank. The Court in order to ensure protection and conservation of water bodies in the state directed the state and local authorities to not allow construction within 50 meters of the high-water mark of the water body. The irony here is that again the onus lies on the different government agencies that will implement and enforce the order. There are constructions going on beside and on different rivers in the State but the agencies are not enforcing the order in letter and spirit. Do citizens now need to go to court for this too and if that is the case then isn’t it true that governance is literally going down the drain in the state?
Chronic traffic jams
in Shillong
The Court’s concern over the escalating traffic congestion echoed in its order that the government may have a grand plan to solve the issue but nothing so far has happened on the ground. The Court in the case titled: Phillip Khrawbok Shati Vs. State of Meghalaya and 18 others, expressed disappointment at the lack of progress in resolving the chronic traffic jam in the state capital. It directed the government to be innovative, think out of the box and come up with strategies to address the issue.
Political appointments
Another feat that this Government has achieved which no other government in the past has accomplished is in political appointments. This Government made political appointments left, right and centre with no consideration of how this will affect the public exchequer. Almost all defeated MLAs belonging to the NPP were accommodated and appointed to different posts with various pay and perks. It may be mentioned that the MLAs who belong to the different ruling parties were also accommodated and appointed to different posts with pay and perks equivalent to minister or cabinet ministers as the case may be. Perhaps the incumbent Chief Minister is the only one in the history of the State who has the maximum number of people to advise him on payment.
The irony is that no pressure group has ever protested against this blatant spending of public money. Even the new political party which was established with the sole objective of fighting corruption in the State has not done anything to protest against this misuse of public money. The VPP is keeping mum with regards to political appointments which are eating the vitals of this poor state.
ADC staffs without salary
The failure of governance in the state is also obvious from the fact that the Government has failed to come up with a permanent solution to solve the issue of non-payment of salaries to the staff of the two ADCs in the State. Of the three ADCs in the State, the Jaintia and the Garo Hills Autonomous District Councils have not received their salaries on a regular basis. The NPP cannot wash its hands of the matter and say that it is the problem created by the previous Executive Committees in the respective ADCs. The truth is that this is the second term that the NPP is at the helm of power in the state and also in all the three ADCs too. So if the issue is delayed further then it is only because the NPP has failed the people of the State.
Stem without a bud
Ordinarily you cannot win a trophy or an award without achieving certain feats, but the State Government has recently received an award for its program with a fancy name called Sustainable Transport and Efficient Mobility Society (STEMS). Everybody knows that this project is still-born as the Government is unable to implement it successfully yet it received the award. This is why one should not trust government awards.
The audacity of politicians to pretend that they are ruling the State and are performing their duty is but a sham and the height of deception.