By Toki Blah
I am now 77 years old and I have seen the growth of Shillong from that of a small sleepy hill station, its development into an unplanned capital of Meghalaya and finally into what we are experiencing today, a sprawling concrete nightmare of a city left to rot and fester in its own folly. If traffic moves one metre every ten minutes, it’s an occasion to rejoice. If a student can get to school on time its an occasion for a special puja. Parking space wherever available is an occasion to thank God Almighty. Drinking water, supplied by both the Municipal Board and the PHE passes through city drains and in most cases is fecal contaminated. With no alternative, we are forced to drink it. We empty overflowing septic tanks into the nearest drain and seem least bothered by the lack of infrastructure for waste disposal. At the pace we are sliding downhill, in another five years, any 5 minute downpour will require inflatable rubber boats to ferry commuters around.
The only entity that seems to thrive in the vanishing beauty of Shillong is politics. The KHADC proudly claims that it owns the Wah Umkhrah but appear least bothered that its property has been turned into a stinking sewer. I am concerned to see this once beautiful hill station deteriorating into an unlivable hell-hole before my very eyes. And its not me alone. Almost every citizen of this city, except perhaps for those elected and tasked with the mandate for Shillong’s well-being and welfare, are worried over the city’s eventual fate. So is it surprising that the Smart City Project should be of such vital interest to this city? Trouble is a Government that shuns transparency especially about projects that involve spending. 100% of the people have heard about the Shillong Smart City project. Shame is that 90% of them are still in the dark as to what it is all about.
A Shillong DDK panel discussion, apparently aimed at removing the cloak of secrecy covering the project, aired on April 18, 2025 and titled “DDK Straight Talk: Shillong Smart City – grand vision and ground reality” and another media interview of the Minister Urban Affairs are a must watch for those who wish to understand as to what the project is all about. Both programmes dwelt on the ongoing Smart City project that has been ongoing ever since 2015. The public is interested in knowing how the project plans to transform Shillong into a habitable sophisticated urban habitation. In the public’s search for transparency and accountability about the project. The shows mentioned above, revealed two important facts. First , it revealed the sad fact that it is our own ignorance of civic governance that is the main cause for Shillong’s decay. People migrate ( in hordes) from rural to urban areas in search of better social amenities and improved livelihoods. Its happening to Shillong yet we are in denial of it. We continue to believe and imagine in the supposed joy, bliss, ecstasy and thrill of simple rural life that is supposed to retain rural folks in their pristine surroundings. Sorry but its a myth that doesn’t exist in real life! Reality is that rural poverty is rising. Surviving in the villages is becoming a struggle. Nothing is happening there. Villagers see hope in Shillong and urbanization is a reality we have to live and deal with. The sad fact is also that we have failed to plan for this and have not set up the institutions nor the infrastructure to absorb this rural influx into our towns.
In the rest of the world Municipalities, Municipal corporations and Urban Development Authorities manned by elected representatives of the people and assisted by urban development experts make policies, plan the development and mobilize resources for the future needs of their respective towns and cities. The people of Shillong ably aided by blind politicians and tradition worshipping pressure groups have discarded such proven wisdom and instead entrusted the future of Shillong to our traditional Dorbars. Fact is our Dorbars are both legally and temperamentally ill equipped and totally at a loss on how to deal with civic governance. Frantic efforts to form workable Synjuks of Dorbars to deliver civic needs to the city have simply turned into pathetic efforts easily exploited by politicians. In desperation we turn to the Government and its Urban Affairs Department, only to find that this shallow institution is as lame a duck as the Dorbars in this matter. Is it therefore difficult to understand our thirst to know more about the smart city concept?
The second fact exposed, in the two social media videos mentioned above, is a very disturbing revelation about the Smart City Project even 15 years after its inception. They showed that apparently those in power have yet to realize as to who is the main stakeholder in the project and whom the project is to benefit. In the public domain the common man believes the project is for the benefit of contractors. In the DDK panel discussion there was no Government participant, ( though it was mentioned that they were invited to participate). So there was no Government official to explain and clarify , to the panelist as well as the viewers, what the project is all about and for whom it is being implemented. The discussions failed to remove the growing belief that the Smart City project is a strictly top down approach where the public is simply expected to swallow whatever is rammed down their throat and is not expected to ask too many uncomfortable questions, even if it is in public interest. For example there were those disturbing pictures of ongoing construction activities along the Wah Umkhrah indicating a sewer under construction rather than the improvement of a water front; or the construction of a mall-like structure instead of parking lots in PB.
We the public would like to know who were the consultants who came up with such distressing concepts; the architect who designed these public disasters and most worrying the authority that approved them without consulting the main stakeholder – the public! It is not the first time officials have shown this utter disdain and contempt for public concern. Time they remembered they are there to serve rather than to sneer! Time they are reminded that the public of Shillong are the main stakeholders. That turning a river into a sewer is not what the public wants and that if that is what is happening under the Smart City Project, then there are questions to be asked, answers to be given and hopefully egoistic heads that need to roll.
In a media interview with the Minister of Urban Affairs again on the Smart City project, I don’t know about others who saw it but I was shocked. It was not so much the answers given , though they were bad enough, but the attitude and body language of the person being interviewed that was so offending. The impression being conveyed is, “why bother me with these trivial matters of public interest. I don’t know and I don’t care what is going on in the Smart City Project. Don’t bother me, I have better things to do. The project is going on and that is all that people need to know. We will see what can be done only when the 2nd instalment comes.” The conceit, the arrogance and the pomposity of the Minister is to be seen to be believed. The Minister seems to forget or is ignorant that he is an elected representative of the people. How he got elected I am least interested to know, but as an MLA and Minister he is there to serve the people. He is a servant of the public, not their ruler. He has to show an interest in activities and projects that impact on their welfare.
At this juncture the people of Shillong, the main stakeholders, are worried and deeply concerned on how the Smart City Project under the Minister’s department is going to give their city a better environment and a better facelift. The Minister and his officials have so far failed to give any assurance on this aspect. It is therefore requested that the Urban Affairs Minister arrange a press conference where he and his officials ( without the presence and assistance of the Chief Minister) explain to the public of Shillong all about the Smart City Project and its progress. Our concerns need to be empathically understood, not scornfully swept under the carpet. What happens to Shillong and the future of our children is important to us if not to you. We are stakeholders who have been kept in the dark for too long. The time for explanations and enlightenment has arrived. Please don’t disappoint!