Editor,
I was reading your newspaper and it suddenly got me thinking about important things…..like coal and rain. I saw that our Honourable Minister has put forward a theory about the 4,000 metric tonnes of missing coal. He thinks it might have been “washed away”. This is a profound scientific breakthrough, and my brain is struggling to keep up.
Firstly, has the rain in Meghalaya recently evolved? I left a bucket out in my garden last week and it just got wet. It didn’t wash away…..the bucket, I mean. If rain can wash away 4000 metric tonnes of what is essentially a very hard, black rock, then why is anything in the state still here? What is even more baffling is that this wasn’t just any common rainstorm, it was one of them “smart” rains. At one depot, it washed away 1,839.03 metric tonnes but politely left 2.5 metric tonnes behind, perhaps as a sample for the authorities. At another, it whisked away 2,121.62 metric tonnes but left a mere 8 metric tonnes.
How do we arm ourselves against this kind of rain? As a teacher I am wondering if we should now chain our students to their desks during monsoon season…..it is all very worrying!
And where did the coal go, has anyone checked the Bay of Bengal for a new, large, black, lumpy island that wasn’t there before. If we can’t find it, does that mean the coal has dissolved?
Just as my mind was reeling from this, the Minister said something else very clever. He said that people here only do illegal things (like, hypothetically, digging and transporting coal) for “survival”. This is confusing, because he had just blamed the weather. So, the official story is that the coal was taken by an act of God, but there’s a backup story in case the rain has an alibi.
For the sake of logic, let us explore this “survival” theory. For someone to need 4,000 metric tonnes of coal to survive, what exactly was their predicament?
1. Were they planning to eat it…..that seems like an awful lot of roughage to me.
or
2. Were they just very, very cold, colder than anyone has ever been in the history of being cold. It is truly an alarming level of survival!
So which is it then? Was the coal washed away, or was it taken by someone for ‘survival’, it can’t be both. Unless the rain itself was doing it to survive. Which opens up a whole new can of worms that I am certainly not qualified to investigate.
It’s all very puzzling, and it really makes you appreciate our leaders for having minds that can come up with possibilities that the rest of us could never dream of.
Ultimately, the most baffling part isn’t the disappearing coal, it is the assumption that we would believe it……
Yours etc.,
Ellerine Diengdoh,
Via email
Of disappearing forests and illegal coal depots
Editor,
I wish to draw the reader’s attention to two prominent, First Page, News Reports of the Shillong Times , datd July 29,2025. The first headline states “M’laya at bottom in compensatory afforestation prog”. Compensatory Afforestation relates to the need by user agencies to compensate when forest land is encroached upon for non-forest related activities. Its origin springs from Article 48 A of the Constitution of India which requires that the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forest and wildlife of the country. Under Article 51 A, it is the duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures. The Supreme Court of India too has been very proactive on issues of environment protection. It is from such proactive/pro-people judicial interventions that the Compensatory Afforestation Regime (CAR) of India came about. Further, the CAR in India is a mechanism to offset the loss of forest land diverted for non-forest purposes, like infrastructure development. It involves afforesting an equivalent area of non-forest or degraded forest land. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 (CAF Act) provides the legal framework for managing these funds and ensuring their effective utilization.
The question foremost in the readers mind therefore is , in light of the recently alleged forest scam at Law Adong, Mawpat, whether the Hima Mylliem, the Syiem of Mylliem and his Dorbar together with the KHADC are exempted from Acts of Parliament and Supreme Court injunctions, as far as forested land under their jurisdiction is concerned? This letter and its question is intended to draw the readers mind to the above fact and for more enlightened judicious minds to kindly explain the position to the less knowledgeable citizenry.
The second eye catching news item referred to is to the Caption “Rain washed away 4,000 MT of ‘missing coal’: Kyrmen Shylla”. Goodness gracious me and here we are, all believing the Government of India, Meteorological Department when it declared that Meghalaya was suffering from a LARGE DEFICIENT rainfall this monsoon. But the Minister, being a Minister must be knowing better; must be having inside “High Level” information that ordinary citizens lack. As per the report he had stated that since Assam (down there in the valley) is experiencing floods because of heavy rain, the possibility of these rains carrying away 4000 MT of illegally mined coal from depots in Meghalaya (up here in the Jaintia Hills), has become a distinct possibility! Now, one has to either be born an idiot or has developed a respectful dose of gullibility to swallow such fishy public statements. In this particular case, I hope none of the readers have either of the above traits.
Yours etc.,
Toki Blah,
Via email
Rejoinder from Local Fund Audit
Editor,
The letter, “Unjustified harassment appearing in the editorial column of Shillong times dated 16th July, 2025, is unacceptable and the allegations made therein that the Directorate of Local Fund Audit (DLFA) takes 10 years to identify errors in pay fixation of College teachers is untrue and baseless.
All cases of fixation of pay and reporting of DCRG of College teachers which were received in the DLFA up to the Financial Year 2021-22 from the Directorate of Higher & Technical Education (DHTE) have been disposed off and settled.
However, during the course of fixation of pay, certain over-fixation by concerned colleges were detected and the DLFA has advised the DHTE to ask the concerned teachers to refund the amount which has been overdrawn. As per prevailing Rules, if a Government employee has received over-payment due to errors in fixation of pay, etc, the amount will have to be recovered from the employee. Hence, DLFA is acting in compliance with the Rules and procedures of the State Government and not at its own behest.
Further, the Education Department had enhanced the rate of DCRG from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for Deficit College teachers in 2023 which had been communicated to DLFA vide letter No. EDN 22/2007/258 dated 16-16-2023. From this enhancement of DCRG, a total of 200 cases which had already been settled earlier were again re-submitted to DLFA for reporting the balance amount of DCRG.
As of March 31, 2024, there were 14 cases pending with DLFA for fixation of pay. During 2024-25, 200 cases were received by DLFA which also included the cases which were earlier settled but had to be reviewed again due to the enhancement of the rate of DCRG. The Directorate completed settlement of a total of 158 cases in the year 2024-25. Further, during the period from 1st March till July 23, 2025, another 58 cases were settled and reported back to DHTE. The current pending cases lying with DLFA as of today stands at 15 which are expected to be settled by the end of July 2025.
In spite of the challenges faced, this Directorate remains committed to the expeditious completion of the task of fixation of pay and DCRG reporting of all retired lecturers of Deficit and Ad-hoc colleges in the State and refutes the views of the person who wrote this particular letter.
Yours etc.,
Smti A.M Tariang
Director of Local Fund Audit,
Government of Meghalaya