Editor,
Elders who have served this land have begged for it; youngsters with starry dreams for their future have demanded it. People of every shade and persuasion have tweeted, blogged, facebooked and in general gone hoarse over it. And after the first bout of storm there was a bit of lull and now professionals like Meghalaya Architect’s forum are offering their considered opinion with certain measured seriousness that needs to be listened to by the powers to be. Yes, I am talking about the construction of the new Assembly building. Yes a decent and beautiful edifice must be built, in time to avoid unnecessary cost escalations which will entail more ‘swanky’ trips to New Delhi with our worn out begging bowl. It must also be appreciated that the Meghalaya Architects’ forum did not rush in with some half baked idea, nor is there any self serving pandering in their arguments. They have taken their time and looked at the issue under social, political, geographical, logistic, aesthetic, security etc angles, and now are of opinion that a suitable New Assembly structure can only come at the New Shillong township. Those who are rooting for the Assembly construction after destroying ‘Tara Ghar’, now have a duty to come up with their own cogent arguments and persuade us. For India will no more issue ‘carte blanche’ to its elected oligarchy to do what they please in between two elections.
Yours etc.,
John D Jayakumar
Tara Ghar – walk only zone
Editor,
I wish to convey my appreciation to Bari Juban Kharwanlang (and his colleagues) for the write up on behalf of the Meghalaya Architects Forum (MAF) (ST August 11, 2011) about the Tara Ghar imbroglio. It was a well written piece compiled by a group of mostly young, intelligent and technically qualified people – this is what we want, young people who know what they are talking about to take part in decisions which will affect the future of this town of ours and the state as a whole. May I invite other qualified youngsters from other fields to put in their bit in trying to preserve what is left of this once beautiful town. Leaving your future in the hands of politicians is not the wisest of decisions. The Chief Minister recently commented that ‘Efforts would also be made to identify more areas for beautification and to convert certain areas as walk-only zones and restrict driving so that pedestrians have enough space for themselves” (ST Aug 12, 2011)- let us take him up on this and ensure that areas in and around Khyndailad including the area around Tara Ghar remain, as the CM has said, walk-only zones or green zones suitable for peaceful walks amidst trees, shrubs, flowers, green grass with wafts of pine air teasing our nostrils.
Yours etc.,
DM Pariat,
Shillong-3