The city’s transport system was badly affected this week as vehicles went off the road out of “requisition-phobia”. Streets were virtually devoid of buses, taxis and mini-buses as the administration went on a requisition-spree in connection with the holding of District Council election.

While some of the “ill-fated” ones fell into the net of the administration, the careful ones preferred to keep their vehicles in the garage. It is learnt that the district administration requisitioned nearly 100 vehicles of various descriptions.

The resultant effect: the commuters went through a harrowing experience. The buses and taxis were playing sparingly. And there was virtually a chaotic condition. Some “lucky” taxis, which were on road, had a file day. Fares were raised arbitrarily sometimes doubly.

It is felt that much of the chaos could have been avoided if the administration had made an announcement that requisitioning had been stopped after the requisite number of vehicles were in their possession. Most of the taxis and jeep owners; it seems, were reluctant to bring out their vehicles even after the requisitioning had been called off.

Said the transport operator, “it is better not to earn anything than to get requisitioned by the Government”. Another taxi-owner remarked “it is like burning a candle from both sides – neither will they pay nor will the vehicle be looked after.” Indeed the main grouse of the operators is that the government takes inordinately long to pay up, if at all. Mostly the administration does not pay. Only rarely the payment is made and that too after a gap of two or three years.

It is felt that the Govt should examine the various provisions of the law regarding requisition of private vehicles. If not anything, care must be taken to make the payment of a reasonable fare at the time of releasing the vehicles. This one step would automatically evaporate the fears and agonies of transport operators in this regard, it is felt.

While the hide-and-seek drama goes on between the administration and transport operators, one section of people who reap a big harvest are the policemen. It is an accepted fact that even during normal times without greasing the palms of policemen no public transport can play for long. But the demand during the crisis period is enormous. It is alleged that police parties entrusted to do requisition let off vehicles if they are “satisfied”. But the process of “satisfying” is said to be a never-ending affair. Almost everyday, at some point or other the policemen in the name of “requisition” extract whatever they can from the drivers.

By R. T. Rymbai

The 29th of March is a Govt holiday in Meghalaya on account of Tirot Singh’s Death Anniversary. But from all accounts available, Tirot Singh did not die on the 29th of March 1834.

Before the Hill States were carved out of it, had mistakenly declared the 29th of March a public holiday in honour of the Death Anniversary of Tirot Singh. The then Government thought that Tirot Singh must have died on that date because Rijon Singh acceded to The Raj of Nongkhlaw on that day. This was a confusion with the British system of succession when their heir apparent succeeds the moment the reigning sovereign dies or abdicates. Hence the famous English saying; `The king is dead, long live the king’. The Khasi system is different. We have their presumptive. When a reigning system dies, resigns or its otherwise removed from office there is an election for a new Syiem by an electoral college or the public, as the case may be from amongst the their presumptive.

The Government of Meghalaya wrongly followed what the Government of Assam once did when it also declared the 29th of March as a public holiday on account of the Death Anniversary of Tirot Singh. But this year the Government of Meghalaya has had second thoughts about the matter on account of the protests of persons like me. And so we find that the 29th of March has been marked a holiday on account of the Death Anniversary of Tirot Singh as `Conditional to Change.’

The Khasi Cultural Society, Meghalaya, observed the 150th Death Anniversary of Tirot Singh on the 22nd of Feb. last for the first time. The inference from this is that the Society must have taken the 22nd of Feb. 1834 as the date of death of Tirot Singh. But Dr Hamlet Bareh himself, the President of the Society, admitted that the date of death of Tirot Singh was as yet unknown. He contributed an article on Tirot Singh published in the Souvenir of the Society celebrating the Anniversary. He wrote therein. “The date of his (Tirot Singh’s) has not been obtained.” With due respect to the Society the celebration could have been called The Tirot Sigh Memorial Day, or by any other suitable name, but by no means his death anniversary when the date is not known.

Dr. John Hung Morris, in his “The History of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists’ Foreign Mission,” wrote, “Teerut Singh was condemned to imprisonment for life at Dacca where he died in 1836”. Dr R M Lahiri, in his The Annexation of Assam wrote, “He (Teerut Singh) breathed his last in 1841” . These two authors gave two different dates, either of which might be wrong as the 29th of March was wrong. Capt. Boileau Pemberton’s The Eastern Frontier of India is a mine of information about Assam and the Hills in the early nineteenth century. It is liberally made use of by later authors in their works on Assam and the Hills of the early 19th century. Pemberton completed his book on the 21st of September 1935. About Teerut Singh he wrote, “on the day appointed (the 13th of January 1833), the Rajah Teerut Singh met Mr Inglis at Nursingare, a mile east of Oomchilung and Teerut Singh was conveyed to Myrung, from where he was taken to Gowahatee, and eventually confined in the jail of Dacca, where he remains a prisoner for life”.

Mr Hopingstone Lyngdoh, the founder-president of the HSPDP, was elected as the Chief Executive Member of the Khasi Hills District Council on 31 March. The unanimous choice of this popular leader from the West Khasi Hills district is said to be a compromise between the out-going CEM, Mr B. Wanniang and some of the new claimants.

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This is the first time that Mr Lyngdoh has assumed the office of CEM.

In the first showdowns, the ruling APHLC -HSPDP combine suffered a mild shock when one of their Members voted for the opposition nominee in the election of Chairman. Mr P G Marbaniang, who was elected by 20-8 votes in the secret ballot, defeated Mr H S Shylla, the opposition sponsored candidate. A Congress(I) member was absent.

Sources said that the office of Deputy Chairman has been allotted to the APHLC. Of the four offices of Executive Member, the two parties have decided to take two each.

Earlier, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr J Tayeng conducted the swearing in of the newly-elected members.

Power has started hawing from the Kopili hydel project this week.

The first unit of the project began transmitting 25 MW power to the north-eastern regional grid. The second unit of equal strength would begin generating power from next week.

The Rs 149-crore project was initially designed to be commissioned in June 1982. Owing to political unrest and natural calamities the target date for commissioning the first unit (Khandong power House) was revised to February – March this year.

Mr S.R.S. Chairman of the NEEPCO told newsmen here that movement in Assam and flood ravages in the region disrupted the supply line at crucial junctures resulting in unforeseen delay in commissioning. He said that there was no laxity on the part of the management once un-interrupted supply of materials was restored.

The first phase of the project would generate 150 MW, and when completed the total capacity of the project would go up to 325 MW. It is expected to be completed by March 1985. Investigations and explorations were being made to raise the capacity to about 500 MW.

Mr Shah said that efforts were onto request the Prime Minister to dedicate the project to the nation at a function to be organized at her convenience.

The NEEPCO, he said, had 7000 circuit kilometers transmission line work-load. The Corporation has two more projects in hand: Doyang hydro electric (Nagaland) and Garo Hills Thermal project.

The Datta Commission’s finding about the management of primary education in Khasi Hills has become somewhat irrelevant now, in view of the imminent exit of the defaulting Executive Committee of the outgoing District Council. The appointment of the Commission itself was, therefore somewhat out of place from this point of view. The Commission’s observations, and more particularly the timing of publication of the same, however, would well serve the Congress (I) in the ensuing District Council elections to put under shade the regional parties who have been in control of the District Council affairs during the outgoing term.

Regarding the fate of primary education in this autonomous district, the government could well take it over without such exercise of an impartial enquiry. Having taken over the control of primary education in the other autonomous districts, the government had no valid reason not to take the same decision in respect of the Khasi autonomous district as well. For the sake of a uniform policy throughout the State in respect to a vital subject affecting the government -council relationship, there was no escape from bringing Khasi Hills also in line with the rest in this matter. There should be no different treatment to Khasi Hills even if the new Executive Committee to be formed after the ensuring election is eventually found to be more amenable to the party in power at the State level.

A few more National Parks are coming up in the north-eastern region, according to statements made by the Union Minister for Environment, Mr Digvijay Singh, who was recently on a visit to some of the States of the region. This is as it should be since the region abounds in abodes of rare specimens of Wildlife which need protection from extinction and therefore, call for suitable measures for their preservation in as many of their natural habitats as possible. In Kaziranga alone, as many as 91 Rhinos are reported to have been killed in recent years, and such vandalism has to stop. The existing arrangements for keeping watch over poachers and others pouncing on the sanctuary dwellers obviously need to be adequately augmented.

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Now that there would be a wide network of such Sanctuaries, big and small, there appears to be a good case for putting all of them under a common regional arrangement which would ensure a better management of these sanctuaries. Since, however, these at present are under control of different State governments, a common cadre of personnel drawn from the concerned States could perhaps be thought of if only such a coordination is arranged for under an integrated autonomous agency. The North Eastern Council could well be interested in taking the needed initiative for such a desideration.

N-E Congress(I) Committee

The one-day conference of the North-East Regional Congress(I) Coordination Committee held here on March 7 was an uneventful affair. Both in terms of glamour and material contents the conference has been quite unlike the party’s previous meets held in the region.

Notwithstanding the fact that the AICC (I) General Secretary, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, had attended the meet, it failed to create much impression on the minds of the people of Mizoram who are going to the polls within some six weeks.

Its political and economic resolutions were somewhat on the predictable lines with no new thrust nor any appeal to the partymen to take-up any pressing problems with a sense of urgency.

The only significant development has been the election of Mr Hiteshwar Saikia as the new Chairman of the Committee in place of Captain W.A. Sangma who held the post for three years since its inception. Observers here say that Mr Saikia’s election was designed to match the massive challenge the party faces in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Mr Saikia has already created an image of a go-getter by handling the complex situation in Assam in an adroit manner. On the other hand, the aging Meghalaya Chief Minister, has been relieved of the responsibility reportedly on his own request. He is said to be finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the task before the chairman.

The political resolution has made frontal attack on the original parties for their alleged connivance with the secessionist forces. The resolutions or even the deliberation lacked the punch witnessed in the earlier conferences. Perhaps, the absence of Mr C.M. Stephen, the erudite party General Secretary, was sorely missed.

It is said that one principal reason for the near wash-out of the Conference was its timing; many party leaders and elected representatives were in Delhi for the party meet held around that time. Besides, the Meghalaya leaders were busy with electioneering for the District Council.

The Dutta Commission of inquiry has squarely blamed the Khasi Hills District Council for the mess over the primary education in the District.

In his 9-page report Mr S. K. Dutta, the former Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court, has pronounced the District Council guilty of “misusing and misapplying money received from the Government.”

In recommended that the State Govt should take over primary education to tide over the “present crisis” and reentrust the functions “after things are set in order.”

Justice Dutta has pointed out that the teacher’s salary was not being disbursed regularly, although the Govt had sanctioned the grants for the purpose.

He has found the District Council guilty of not supplying school kits like chalks, pencils, blackboards and other articles, although it had “shown that it had incurred contingency expenditure from its own resources.”

Moreover, the Commission found that most of the schools were not inspected for a long time by the District Council, although there are Inspectors on the pay-roll. It is inferred that the Inspectors are being utilized for purposes other than inspection of schools.

There will be a straight fight between the Congress-I and the APHLC for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Meghalaya. The Congress-I candidate is its Working President, Mr J E Tariang, and the opposition nominee is Mr E B Lyngdoh.

The Congress-I led coalition has 37 members and the opposition has 22. The election takes place on March.

Meanwhile, Mr J B Tariang has said that Mr D D Pugh, the former Chief Minister, had applied to Captain W A Sangma for party ticket. But since he had approached, a bit too late his case was not considered. Asked if Mr Pugh has joined the party or not, Mr Tariang said he was not sure. “He might have applied to the Chief Minister,” he said.

The verdict in the two district of Khasi Hills has gone overwhelmingly in favour of the State based parties.

The results of the District Council election which were announced here on March 21 , show that against 23 seats of the State-based parties, the Congress-I the only National Party to contest, secured a poor three.

The APHLC – HSPDP alliance has secured an absolute majority by bagging 21 seats out of 29. The other local party, PDIC, which has obtained two seats, is in league with the Congress(I). Among the three Independents are two Ministers – Mr Kitdor Syiem and Dr F A Khonglam (who had defected from the APHLC and the HSPDP respectively in the wake of ministerial instability last year). The third Independent is the mercurial young leader of the Hynniewtrep National Front (HNF).

One seat will be nominated by the govt.

Observers say that the results of the District Council election have only brought out the hard truth that the Congress(I) is yet to find grass-root level acceptance in the district. The verdict is unlikely to have any immediate ramification on the state politics, but it would certainly bring pressure on the three defeated Ministers. The roaring success of the HSPDP is likely to embolden those detractors of the so called unity move, observers say.

The HSPDP President, Mr Hopingstone Lyngdoh told this reporter that the election results had shown that the people had not accepted the present Ministry. Both in 1983 and 1984, the people of Khasi Hills had rejected the national parties.