By H.H. Mohrmen
When the hill state was created, it was given a very beautiful name. ‘Meghalaya’ meaning “Abode of Clouds” in Sanskrit, derived from megha (cloud) and alaya (abode). It is a fitting name for a state known for its heavy rainfall, misty hills, and lush greenery. Coined by geographer S.P. Chatterjee, the name was adopted in 1972 and reflects the region’s famously close clouds and rich natural beauty of the three hilly regions. However, after the state has attained fifty years of statehood, it has now become famous for all the wrong things. This merits that we revisit and perhaps even change the name of the State from Meghalaya to a new name.
Court Order Circumvented in the State
A friend who visited the state recently was curious about the popular “shop open” or “open shop” signposts everywhere he went in Meghalaya. He asked, “This ‘shop open’ or ‘open shop’ must be a very popular brand in the state? I have never seen this brand anywhere in India. It must be a business unique to Meghalaya only?” The “shop open/open shop” signs are seen on the roadside almost everywhere in the state. The owner must be very rich to own such a big franchise. So our friend couldn’t help but wonder who owns this brand.
“Another strange phenomenon about this business venture is the fact that a person can only see the signs on the roadside, but not the shop. Nowhere do they display their products. What do they sell in these strange shops?” my friend asked. Unfortunately, I did not have answers to any of his questions at that point in time.
I scratched the surface a little and realized that whoever came up with the idea was a genius, and the government should award him/her the “Master of Hoodwink” award of the state. Not surprisingly every business must have its own business secret, but the secrecy of this business is to intentionally deceive the public and even the honourable High Court. Since the same idea has been replicated all over the state, it must be the idea of a bright government official, and the award should go to somebody in the Excise Department of Meghalaya who came up with this brilliant idea.
The Excise Department gets away with fooling everybody when it tries to circumvent the court order which banned opening or establishing shops selling Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) on the roadside, near educational institutions, or places of worship. The wine stores remain in the same place albeit with a mischievous sign post which is in violation of court orders. No doubt the general name has replaced the fancy names of wine stores, like ‘Wut wut wine store’, ‘Pynbha briew wine store’ or what have you, but it is a case where businessmen, supported by the government, have successfully pulled the wool over everybody’s eyes. This is just one case of illegality thriving in the state of Meghalaya, where even court orders are circumvented by stakeholders.
Court Orders Ignored
There are other cases where court orders are outwitted or ignored by the agencies which are supposed to enforce them. One court order being violated with impunity is the timber ban of 1996. Then there is the court order which bans the construction of any structures near rivers or water bodies in the state. If construction near rivers is happening even in towns and cities despite the ban, then God only knows who will enforce the order in the villages.
Who Will Guard the Guard?
When the first woman Director General of Police of the state took charge to lead the Department, she promised to stop the police from collecting money from trucks plying on the highway. Everybody welcomed the announcement, but unfortunately, today we see the police continuing with business as usual. A drive during the night from Guwahati to Silchar will make one realize the number of stops that trucks make while plying on this little less than 300 km highway.
Overloaded dumper trucks transporting boulders and limestone from the Jaiñtia Hills not only travel with overloaded consignments, but the owners have even extended the bodies of the trucks as they wish. Anybody who travels on the highway to Guwahati would have seen these overloaded dumper trucks carrying different consignments, yet the powers that be are turning a blind eye to what is happening. The question is: what are the police, who man these checkpoints on the highway, doing?
The NGT Ban on Coal Mining
After the NGT ban on rat-hole coal mining in April 2014, the illegal activity stopped for a very brief period only. Illegal extraction of coal continued in far-flung areas of the state.
The NGT ban also required that the authorities estimate the extracted coal, which was later said to be auctioned by Coal India Limited. Then there was the story of floodwaters due to torrential rains allegedly carrying a total of 4,000 metric tonnes of extracted coal to Bangladesh. Although mining activity is not as visible as it used to be, one can still see trucks carrying coal plying on the highway. At times, some of these trucks overturn and expose the consignments they carry, yet nobody asks questions. The cement industries too have never complained about the non-availability of coal despite the ban. Naturally, any person in their right frame of mind should ask: where does the coal used in the cement plants come from?
The Good Book says: truth shall prevail. The unlawful acts come to the fore only when accidents occur and people die in incidents which the authorities cannot cover up. My friends from different parts of the world expressed their sympathy when they saw the news reported in media outlets in their countries. The district administration would have been able to save the government from major global embarrassment had it not tried to hide the first incident which occurred a few weeks before the major one. The district administration, and the police department in particular, despite the fact that the victims of the earlier explosive incident were first taken to Sutnga PHC, tried to cover up the incident, which only led to the devastating blast.
The Chief Minister ‘Said’ by not ‘Saying’ it
The Chief Minister, time and again in his statements to the press, reiterated that there is no coal mining in the state. By denying the obvious, he is encouraging the illegal activity to continue. The Chief Minister not only denied the fact that coal mining continues despite the ban, he even encouraged mining when he later admitted to the press that it is difficult to regulate illegal coal mining in the state. After the Chief Minister admitted the government’s inability to curb illegal mining, incidents of mining increased manifold in Meghalaya. The CM’s admission is like the government circuitously giving a green light, and the miners went gung-ho about their business. It is like the government surrendering and, in an indiscreet way, encouraging mining in the state.
The Deputy Chief Minister’s recent statements that it is difficult to regulate illegal coal mining because mining is happening in far-flung areas where it is difficult to reach even by four-wheel vehicles are just excuses. The coal miners use the highway to transport their consignments, right? If the government is serious about regulating the illegal extraction of coal, it can easily catch the trucks carrying illegal consignments on the highway. Yet, despite the numerous police checkpoints both legal and illegal and on the entire stretch of the highway, somehow coal-laden trucks are still able to go scot-free.
Drones are being used for different purposes, so why can it not use drones to locate coal mining areas? The other pertinent question is how is it that explosives are available freely in the coal mine areas? Who supplied the dynamites to the coal mine owners?
The truth is that the government is deliberately turning a Nelson’s eye to all the illegal activities happening in the state. There is no power in the world that will be able to force a government that is hell-bent on allowing free rein of illegal acts, to enforce the law.
In such a situation, there is only one thing left for the people of the state to do, and that is to change the name of the state. Because of the rampant illegal activities, the name of the state may change to Illegalaya or Unlawfulaya. Better still, one may go back to Sanskrit and get the literal meaning of the word “illegal” in Sanskrit. I tried Googling a relevant word and found this word: Avaidha , which means not conforming to law, rule, or Shastra (scriptures). The question therefore is whether we should now change the name of the state from Meghalaya to Avaidhalaya?
