Editor,
Local reactions to the NGT ban on rat hole coal mining have now begun and rightly so. However certain crucial aspects of the ban and its impact on Meghalaya should not be lost sight of.
Firstly the NGT Ban came as no surprise. Rat hole unscientific mining has adversely impacted the local environment; our traditional way of life and most lamentably on our pristine water bodies. It is not sustainable and for the last 20 years the writing was already on the wall on the need to regulate such environmentally degrading activity. Those who now pretend they didn’t know, are hypocrites. Our elected representatives (from all parties), the Government and the District Councils chose to ignore these warnings. They preferred to shut their eyes. In refusing to set our own house in order, an external intervention has now brought in total confusion arising out of our unpreparedness. We are paying for the indifference, apathy, lack of foresight and sheer abrogation of responsibility from leaders elected to safeguard the state against such nasty surprises.
Secondly, our people, especially those belonging to the poorer and economically marginalised sections, those directly or indirectly connected with the coal trade, have been caught on the wrong foot. Their livelihoods affected; earnings diminished. Concern over the environment should not blind us to this reality. If therefore, for no fault of their own, the poor of the state are affected, it is the duty of our elected representatives to evolve some sort of relief mechanism. This should assume priority over everything else. Unfortunately petty political squabbling continues to blind the eyes of our leaders over the genuine suffering of the people.
At this stage one does not foresee any relaxation on the ban, simply because there is no evidence of an appropriate response to its cause. Opportunistic politics with an eye on media exposure rather than relief for the suffering; longwinded and bombastic posturing over a tenuous land tenure system; legal wrangling over the constitutional efficacy of the NGT are unlikely to bring about any immediate relief. At best, they only serve to highlight the desperation of those in the political wilderness, who would do anything for a bit of media limelight.
The relief mechanism mentioned above, is a short term measure. The long term perspective calls for the Government to come up with a scientific and futuristic mining policy, that would be inclusive, participative and emphatic to the interest of small mine operators of the state. A knee jerk mining policy, in favour of big corporate mining companies, will be yet another disaster, detrimental to the egalitarian ethos of Meghalaya. For a change let us leave out the big fish and start thinking instead about the less fortunate. So, is the state prepared to come up with a mining policy that is pro poor?
This is the time to do it. Why should we view a crisis only as a danger and a threat? A crisis also offers an opportunity. Let’s use this opportunity to bring in proper management (not exploitative extraction) of our natural resources. Use this opportunity to develop the required vision for the state and its people. Use it to bring in a change in the political mindset that starts thinking in the interest of the state as a whole instead of only its pampered elite. Hang the elite and let’s help the poor!
Yours etc.,
Toki Blah,
Via email
Unprofessional admission procedure
Editor,
This is regarding the admission procedure for Class 11 in St.Anthony’s School. I find that the admission procedure was very unfair and unprofessional on the part of the School. First of all, there were no signboards or any instructions put up regarding the admission procedure and how we should go about getting the forms. Secondly, the ICSE Results came on the 21st of May, 2014, and when the ICSE students went to the school to take their forms on the 22nd of May, they were informed that admissions for Science Stream was closed and that seats were available only in Arts and Commerce stream. When the Principal was asked about this, his reply was, “Usually, ICSE results come out before the MBOSE results, but this time, the MBOSE results came out first , hence, we did not know how to handle it.” My question is, what was there to handle? What they could have done would be to supply forms to the students only after ALL the Board results have come out. The students will then submit the forms along with a photocopy of their mark-sheets and it will be the responsibility of the administration of the school to screen all the applicants and then bring out the final list of admitted students based only on Merit. This is the least the school could have done. Of course, if the school finds it too cumbersome to screen too many applicants, they can give a cut-off percentage of marks for each stream below which forms will not be supplied to the student. For Science stream they should admit students based only on Math+Science+English marks, for Arts stream based only on Social Studies+English+2nd Language marks and so on. The list of students admitted should clearly state the combination of marks attained by each and every student and hence this will provide better transparency in the admission procedure of the school.
All of this will work only if they abolish the system of “Spot Admission” which I think is ridiculous because it turns it into something like a first-come-first-serve admission procedure and this can even lead to people with very high percentage not getting admission if they are late in applying.
Yours etc.,
Shainam Kharumnuid,
3rd year Electrical Engineering student,
IIT Madras
