A local asked his friend at a private gathering, “can you say which is the busiest road on earth?” There were varied answers – but all wrong, of course. When everybody seemed to give up trying any more, he smartly furnished the answer – “kachhari Road in front of the main secretariat building” aesthetics.ae. Said the wise crack, “look at Mahatma Gandhi who has been waiting so long in front of the secretariat building to amble across the road for depositing his electricity bill at the SESU office!”

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The Regional Center Govt employees and workers in the North-East have decided to launch a region-wide agitation to press the Cente for extension of Special (Duty) Allowance to all categories of central staff based in the region.

The Regional Coordination Committee (RCC) of the Central staff has decided to hold a regional conventional Gauhati on April 20 to mobilize the employees.

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It is recalled that the Centre has awarded Special (Duty) Allowance at 25% of pay to those category with all-India transfer liability who come to serve the North-East. The RCC has been demanding that the allowance should be extended to all or none. The Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee in a recent letter to an MP from this region, had stated that the allowance had been introduced to provide incentive to the central government employees from other parts of the country to serve the difficult region exploresurvey.com/biscuitvillecatering.

The RCC has rejected this explanation as “thoroughly discriminatory” since the fundamental consideration of granting such an allowance is the relatively higher cost of living, and difficult working conditions.

A woman, suspected to be a child-lifter, was lynched to death by an angry crowd at Garo- badha in East Garo Hills district on April 3.

The woman who had come for marketing on the market day was encircled by the crowd, and unleashed a mass assault. The police rescued the woman and despatched her to Tura civil hospital where she succumbed to the injuries.

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The Deputy Commissioer of East Garo Hills, Mr G.N. Bhattacharjee told this reporter on phone that one person had been arrested on the spot and a case was registered against him.

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A strong rumour of child-lifting has been sweeping through the Garo Hills for the past few days. Apparently, rumour has been spread that a group of child-lifter was operating in the Garo Hills to smuggle children for sacrificing them for the smooth construction of the second bridge over Brahmaputra at Pancharatna now under progress. The gullible sections have been impressed that offer of human blood is necessary for propitiating the god before bridges are constructed.

The M. P.-elect from Meghalaya, Mr Jerlie Tariang is expected to take oath on April 23 when the Rajya Sabha begins a fortnight-long session.

Mr Tariang, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha last week by 38 to 19 votes (two votes were rejected and one absent), is a veteran political leader of Meghalaya. He is presently the working President of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress (I) Committee.

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Although the APHLC- HSPDP backed candidate, Mr B.B. Lyngdoh was defeated, there has not been much regrets about the result. The general feeling of the people is that a capable person has been entrusted with the responsibilty to represent the State at the national forum. Mr Tariang who is known to be a dynamic person having wide contacts in the corridors of power in Delhi. has promised to try and bridge the gap between Delhi and Shillong.

An interesting aspect of the election result is the cross-voting by two Opposition members of the Assembly. This has given rise to speculation in the political circles about the motive of the two MLAs. Are they prospective deserters? Or did they merely cast conscious vote? Reports have it that at least one member from Jaintia Hills cross voted to serve as a notice to all concerned about his dissatisfaction with the leadership of the Opposition. Another Member is said to be a close-associate of Mr Tariang.

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Moreover, the rejected ballot papers reveal that there were marks against both the name. It is too much to believe that the elected representatives are ignorant of the system of voting, it is likely that the two voters adopted this means to give vent to their dissatisfaction.

Some very revealing statistics about enrolment in the primary and Middle English (M.E) Schools in Meghalaya were quoted by the State Education Minister, Dr. R.C. Laloo at a recent public meeting at Jowai. Against about 200,00 students in the rolls of school registers at the primary classes, the follow-up number admitted to M.E. Schools is about 45,000. This means that for every 100 students, only about 23 pursue their studies upto the next stage, that is the Middle School level. The drop out figure thus works out to be about 77 per cent, which in all conscience and by every standard must be considered as a very high measure of wastage of prospective talent and resources.

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It may be argued that enrolment in these hills at the level of primary education has been very high, compared to corresponding figures for the rest of the country, rather than that the enrolment at the next stage of middle-school level is too low, compared to the national average. This only makes the high drop-out figures all the more unfortunate, since adequate attention on this aspect of our educational management would have put these hills in more lurid light at the M.E. stage as well. Thanks to pioneering initiative taken by the early Christian missionaries in these hills, primary education got a tremendous boost, supplemented suitably by the government and now in recent years by the District Councils. Primary education thus spread enormously, whatever be its quality.

In fact, the quality of education imported at the primary stage may partially, not wholly in any case, explain the huge dropout at the next stage. A confirmation of such a supposition would certainly need closer scrutiny, but that the expanse at the primary stage need to be accompanied by a matching measure of depth need not be seriously challenged. A more obvious reason for the high drop-out may be that there are not adequate number of M.E. Schools to cater to the products of all or most of the primary schools spread all over the hills. Lack of adequate road communication linking a distant interior village or a number of them nestling a cluster of primary schools may render it impossible for most of the outgoing students to take advantage of the nearest M.E. school quite a distance away.

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Not that these aspects may not have been looked into by the authorities, but it may not be quite off the mark to assume that steps flowing from such thinking have not proved compensating or corrective enough. In recent years there has been a lot of interest, even of controversy, generated over the state of affairs in the field of primary education in these hills. Attention of progress of education at subsequent stages, more particularly the immediate next stage, which is the M.E. stage, has not unfortunately been riveted to the extent called for. The State government, not being embarrassed by the District Council’s jurisdiction at the later stages of educational management, should be willing and able to give a better account of themselves. To start with, the streamlining of education at the Middle English School level may help considerably in stopping the rot revealed by the figures quoted by the Education Minister.

There is an apparent contradiction in the Assam Governor’s claim, in his address to the State Assembly last week, of a general improvement in the law and order situation in the State and the Union Law Minister Jagannath Kaushal’s statement in the Lok Sabha about the same time that conditions in Assam were not conducive even for undertaking intensive revision of electoral rolls because of tension in many areas, as reported by the Election Commissioner. Not that this obvious contradiction is not recognized by the Assam government as well, on the basis of whose report had the Election Commissioner made this assessment. A reconciliation of the two statements would, however, be quite admissible in a situation in which while the crude outbursts of forces of destabilization have largely been contained, the subtle psychological factors working for a change of heart between the warring communities would take time to become more perceptible and effective.

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It cannot, on the whole, be disputed that Mr Saikia’s first year as Chief Minister, the conclusion of which coincided with the beginning of the session of the Assembly inaugurated by the Governor, has been one of much of his own promises and many of the people’s immediate expectations being fulfilled in a fair measure within the interest limitations under which he had to work. The relative facts of his performances and achievements would tell their own tale; the psychological transform-ation in the whole climate of public in general, too, even if severely slow, has nonetheless started creating an impact for whatever it is worth so far. The extremist overtures have been few and far between in recent weeks, and event he care elements in the agitation leadership has become increasingly less acceptable in public estimation in general. Undoubtedly Mr Saikia’s has been an eloquent testimony to a government that works and it has worked with conspicuous success.

If even in such a congenial climate, the half-a-dozen Tribunals appointed to deal with cases of Foreigners have failed so far to start work in right earnest, the fault can be said to lie with a degree of overzealousness to do too many things into short a time. The result is that in the case of these tribunals the members remain without any work for the most part, without being fed with cases of illegal foreigners on whose states they are to pronounce judgments. While this is so, more of such protective tribunal members lie in wait for being summoned to their duties. The fact is that at the earlier stages of detection of such suspected foreign nationals, whom the Police authorities are supposed to defect initially and then screened by the respective committees for the Tribunals to review, the picture appears to be one of a pathetic disinte-restedness – the very reverse of the government-of-the-day’s overzealousness on the one hand and the aggressive stance of the agitators. A balance between the two extremes might well serve to put a stop to more cases of such exercise in putting the cart before the horse. A go-slow attitude may be more helpful in producing better results.

Lack of interest among the voters is a striking feature of the District Council election this year. This is especially true in the city areas.

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In the city constituencies, Laitumkhrah, Laban – Mawprem, Mawlai and Jaiaw constituencies appear to hold fairly bright prospects for the regional party nominees. The Congress(I) chances are bright in Mawkhar constituency. The Malki-Nongthymmai constituency where a multi-cornered contest is taking place, it is likely that the fight will be mainly between the APHLC and the Cong-I).

The election takes place on March 15 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The counting begins on March 17 at the office of the D.C. (Election) adjacent to the secretariat building.

All is not well with the Meghalaya Transport Corporation. There are increasing allegations of misappropriation of funds. Sometime back an employee was put under suspension on charges of corruption. And now comes the news – a cashbook, which is a vital evidence of the alleged swindling of public funds, is missing from the office.

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Sources said that the cashbook relates to the period during which the alleged defalcation took place. The amount involved would run into crores. Sources said that the nature of allegations now being examined include favoritism in matters of allotment of contract bus of body-building, purchase fuel and spare parts.

In London it may be the first call of the cuckoo that singles the dawn of summer, but in Shillong it should be the “ice-cream” vendors who do a brisk business as the sun keeps ascending. Those up countrymen, who carry satin blue wooden boxes on their shoulders, are the real harbingers of summer. It is an entirely different matter that they cannot pronounce the word ice cream (the way they pronounce, it should be spelt as “S-cream”,) but what they trade on is sheer trash. A slab of ice made out of contaminated water, compounded by hazardous chemicals which add atrocious colours, are passed off as ice cream. For the unsuspecting clients, particularly the children, it is the easiest way to invite troubles, health wise.

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.