PIO Status for the Bangladeshi Khasi

By HH Mohrmen

They are the victims of political deals that India and Pakistan made after the two young countries gained independence and the second time around the community was not even taken into confidence when India and Bangladesh demarcated the boundaries of the two countries after the Bangladesh liberation war. They are minorities in the country of their choice and are not cared by their country of origin. The powers that be at different points of time decided the border of the two countries in the capitals of the countries far away from where they live and sealed the fates of the people in the borders. It reminds me of an incident, two decades ago in the International Students’ Center of Manchester University when I happened to meet an engineer from Bangladesh who was there for further studies in the University. When I introduced myself to him and told him that I was his neighbour from Meghalaya, the Bangladeshi engineer gave a blank expression. He had evidently never heard of the name Meghalaya but when I told him that I am a Khasia, he said, “Oh yes there are many Khasia in our country!”

The Khasi Pnar or as the Bangladeshi would call them- the Khasia has been living in what is now Bangladesh since time immemorial. When their ancestors first migrated to the land, it was under the Jaintia kingdom, later on it was under the British Empire, then it changed hands to East Pakistan after independence and now it is in Bangladesh. The Pnars in Jaintiapur are the descendants of the people who live in the area since the day of the Jaintia Kingdom said Pradip Lanong a senior citizen of the town and a retired school teacher. They trace their origin to villages like Nangbah, Nartiang, Shangpung and other villages of what is now known as Jaintia hills district. The 45 odd Pnar families in Jaintiapur speak Pnar and it is one of the very few Khasi villages where the medium of communication among the Khasi Pnar community is Pnar. The rest of the Khasi villages in Bangladesh use War Jaintia language as their medium of communication. Majority of the people of Khasi Pnar descendants who live in less than 50 Khasi villages in Bangladesh are people from Khasi and Jaintia hills but the majority of them belong to the War Jaintia community of Amlarem sub division. Some have been living in the many villages in Bangladesh since the day of the Jaintia raj and some live in new settlements as recent as few years ago.

One can hardly find an old Khasi village precisely because the people have no permanent settlement; they migrate from one place to another in search of forest land to farm. With pan leaves as the only crop which sustains their livelihoods, the Khasis are forced to migrate from one place to another in search of greener pastures once the fertility of the land starts to diminish. The system of land holding in the areas where Khasis live is another factor that makes the Khasis not to feel at home in Bangladesh. Because the Khasis lives in the forest areas and most of the time along the Bangladesh border with many north eastern states of India, the land does not belong to them. In most cases the land is either owned by tea companies or individuals and the companies then let it out to the Myntri (like a headman and a landlord rolled in one) who then sublets the land to the Khasi farmers. Except for few Khasi villages like Jafflong, Nohksiar and about four or five more villages, which are recognized by the government and where people have proper documents of all the land they own, the Khasis who live in the remaining villages don’t even have documents of the land they occupy and farm in. Jino Lamin Myntri of the Nerila village the largest Khasi village in Bangladesh also perhaps one of the wealthiest Khasi in Bangladesh has himself admitted that it is very difficult to be a poor Khasi in Bangladesh. Khasis are no doubt quite well off when compared to their neighbours the tea tribes of Bangladesh who in fact work for them, but the problem is they have no ownership of the land they use. The Khasis lives mostly in the forested area of Bangladesh and are not only neglected by their own government and lack basic necessities like proper roads, electricity, health care and schools, but they are even exploited by their own Myntri some of whom behave like despots. The schools most Khasi villages have is up to Lower Primary level and they provide their own electricity using solar energy but of all the problems that they are facing, that of not owning any land is what makes them feel aliens in their own land.

I asked many Khasis especially the older generation, if their heart is in Bangladesh or in India. Except for the new generation in the age group of 16 to 20 who are now pursuing their education in cities like Dhaka and had never been to the land of their origin, the answer everyone gave is that their heart is in the hills. They long to go back home but Bangladesh is where their livelihood is. Most of the Khasis in Bangladesh have foreseen the uncertainty of their children’s future in Bangladesh. Most of the people I interviewed who can afford to send their kids to school, send them to schools and colleges in Meghalaya rather than in Bangladesh albeit illegally. Some families I met said that they send girls to school in India and boys in Bangladesh. When asked why they said at least in India the girls’ future is secure and boys can always find their way. It again reminded me of another incident many years ago when I met a young educated person from Bangladesh who is now working in a prominent IT company in Bangladesh and asked him whether he considered himself Indian or Bangladesh. He was lost for words for some time and later on answered, “I am a citizen of southeast Asia.” This is the dilemma that the Bangladeshi Khasis face. They cannot own land in their adopted country and do not feel at home in Bangladesh while India is a strange country. They do not belong here nor do they belong there. In a way they are the nowhere people of Southeast Asia.

Bearing in mind the above problems that our kith and kin face in our neighbouring countries, it is therefore imperative that the state government and our MP, finds ways and means of extending the ‘People of Indian Origin’ (PIO) status to the 30,000 (thirty thousand) Khasis in Bangladesh. If the same status can be given to people of Indian origin who live elsewhere in the world, the same should be extended to the Khasis of Bangladesh. By giving them the status, they can easily visit their kith and kin during times of joy and sorrow which is part of the Khasi value system ‘ka tip kur tip kha.’ And for the students who study in India, the degree that the young Khasi- Bangladeshi earns in the country can be legitimized and that will give them advantage over others in the job market. The opportunity to study in India will also open up prospects for the young Khasis to study in their native Khasi language which is currently not possible in Bangladesh. Until the PIO status is extended to the Bangladeshi Khasi, there will be opposition to fencing the Meghalaya portion of India-Bangladesh border, because the fence will not only divide people who used to be one but it will also be a barrier that separates people who share the same culture. It will be like a sea that cuts them from their roots.

(The writer is an environmental activist and a researcher)

n-regulated mining and MUA flagship programmes

Since the beginning of 2012 the Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) is busy preparing for the 2013 general election. It is no surprise to see the Chief Minister introducing government’s own flagship programmes for the benefit of the people of the state. But the question is: are the initiatives of the government going to be just another

exercise to while away public time and waste scarce public resources? Or are the programmes going to be just an election year propaganda of the Congress party in the state? The much hyped flagship schemes which include the Meghalaya Aquaculture Mission and Integrated Meghalaya Basin and Livelihood Development Programme that the government has introduced with the intention of economically empowering the rural poor is not going to produce the desired results for several reasons.

The aquaculture mission with nine missions under its fold aims to create 60,000 entrepreneurs in 2012-13, and 4 lakhs by the end of the 12th five year plan period but the mission is inherently imperilled. The programme by which the government plans to eradicate poverty by 2020 is also expected to cover a total water area of 10,000 hectares; averaging around 20,000 fish ponds every year under the aquaculture project. This is good in paper only. It does not need an expert to forecast that the two schemes introduced by the present MUA government are not going to benefit the target group of certain areas. For starters the flagship programmes are destined to be a non-starter particularly for the people who live in the mining areas of the State and down stream of the mining areas.

The State Pollution Control Board has recently made its findings public on the status of the rivers in Jaintia hills and by doing so it has confirmed what the environmentalists in the Jaintia Hills district have been saying all along that all the rivers in Jaintia hills are polluted. Not only are the rivers in the mining areas dead but every available water body in the mining areas are contaminated from the acid mine drainage (AMD) that is produced from unscientific coal mining. It is like the water bodies in the whole of Jaintia hills are polluted when the rivers downstream of the mining areas are also being affected from the AMD produced from the rat hole mining. The Kupli and the Myntdu are the two cases in point where one cannot find a single aquatic life in the huge water bodies. In such cases where rivers and water bodies cannot hold any aquatic lives, what is the use of the two much talked about programmes of the MUA government?

Hence the Aquaculture Mission and the Integrated Basin and Livelihood Development Programme are going to be of no use for the people in the mining areas of Jaintia hills which comprises the entire Khliehriat Subdivision, part of the Saipung Block, part of the Amlarem block, part of the Thadlaskein block and part of Laskein development block where there are mining activities. It will neither benefit the people situated downstream because the rivers and the entire river basin has been affected by the AMD. One fails to understand how the government expects to economically empower the people from the above schemes which have to do with water bodies when the same government has done nothing to control and manage mining in the state? How can an intelligent chief minister fail to realize that mining and pollution are linked to each other? One cannot have unregulated mining and at the same time hope to have clean and safe water. Mining has to be regulated in order to be able to protect the environment and have clean and safe water. Perhaps Meghalaya is the only mining state which does not regulate mining. Yet the same government which has introduced the two programmes to economically empower the rural poor and improve their livelihoods with water as the main constituent of the project, is the same government which has decided to shelve the prepared Mining Policy and thereby consigned it to the back burner.

The MUA government in general and Bindo M Lanong the minister in charge of Mining  in particular has let the people of the state down by not being able to push through the Bill to manage and control mining in the state. Bindo Lanong has not only deceived the people of the state into believing that he is indeed going to introduce the mineral policy of the state in the present sitting of the house but he has also blatantly

lied to the people when during many of his press briefings he had asserted that the state mineral or mining policy is ready and will be introduced in the next sitting of the house. The credibility of the deputy chief minister is questionable when the fate of the Bill that he had prepared by consulting all the stake holders is now consigned to the rubbish bin of the state secretariat.

Lanong has also taken the stakeholders (he invited for the consultation) which included environmentalists, CEMs of the district councils and miners for a ride by not being able to prepare a bill to satisfy his cabinet colleagues. He has also wasted huge public resources by taking so long to prepare a document which was not even passed by the state cabinet. Lanong has missed the opportunity to set right the wrong that has been practiced in the State. By not being able to introduce the state mineral policy, he has failed to protect the environment for the future generation and more importantly he has proved that he is no different from his two non-matriculate predecessors who themselves have mining interests. In fact the state government need not waste public resources to prepare a Mining policy. If the government is serious about controlling and managing mining in the state, it can simply implement the relevant national forest act and mining regulations which are already exist.

But the question remains as to why the Mining Policy is pushed under the carpet? Is it because the strings of the kitty of the two parties in the MUA are now controlled by the coal mine owners and cement companies of the state? How else can one explain the incident in the august house when the Forest Minister threatens to shut down the Shillong Club for polluting Wards Lake while the same government remains silent about the pollution of rivers in Jaintia Hills? If the government is able to control and manage mining in the State it is not for the interest of Jaintia hills only. The district is a gone case anyway. For Jaintia hills the call is not to save the rivers but to reclaim the water bodies of the district again. The State Government should manage and control mining in the state for the sake of the new mining areas like the West Khasi Hills and Garo Hills Districts. The Government should try to save West Khasi and Garo Hills from the same fate that has befallen the Jaintia Hills.

The present Government should learn from the mistake of not regulating mining in Jaintia hills if it wants to save the water bodies of the other mining areas of the state. The government should regulate mining if the flagship programmes of the state are to succeed because if all the rivers are polluted neither the Meghalaya Aqua-culture Mission nor the Integrated Meghalaya Basin and Livelihood Development Programme will have any impact on the lives of the people.

The author is a research scholar and environmentalist and can be contacted at h.h.mohrmen @gmail.com

License to kill

By HH Mohrmen

This is one heading which is straight from the series of movies revolving around MI5 special agent 007 James Bond. However, the article is not about any of the recently declassified MI5 top secret files nor does it have any connection with Wikileaks. I tried to convince my friends the necessity to collect statistics from the various police outposts and police stations located on the National Highway to find out the number of motor accident cases on Jowai-Shillong portion of NH 44 but we are yet to act on it. I have a feeling that the data if collected would reveal the reckless attitude of not only the truck drivers but also the drivers of every kind of vehicles from two to 20 wheeler monsters which ply on this highway. Every commuter on this highway would confirm that accidents occur on this highway almost on a daily basis and in most cases it involves trucks. But there are accidents which have gone unreported, where parties settle their differences and the police are not involved. But in spite of that the truth remains that nowadays since we seldom have battles and wars traffic accidents are responsible for the largest numbers of deaths.

I don’t have to wait for the data from the police stations and outposts when I am called to conduct the funeral of a father who lost his life in a motor accident in the heart of Jowai town. I wonder if it is sheer coincidence that three families of the same locality in the same block living in houses a few hundred feet apart from each other would meet with the same tragedy of losing their loved ones in a motor accident on the 64 KM stretch of NH 44 and to be asked to conduct the funeral of the third tragedy the locality has experienced in the span of a year. It was indeed a challenge.

Naturally friends and relatives are shocked on knowing about the tragedies and the question on everyone’s lips when tragic accidents occur is, “How did it happen?” In my homily I said we are asking the wrong question. It is a wrong to ask how did it happen because it would not help provide us the answer to understand why accidents happen. I suggested that the question one should ask is not how the accident happened; but rather why did it happen? Why do accidents happen? Why did we have to lose three valuable lives of the locality in motor accidents in the first place? Then answers will start rolling down on us.

Accidents occur because the driver ( and I include myself in the list) is in a perpetual hurry. Our impatience is writ large on our faces when we have to wait for the traffic signals to change. Accidents happen because of reckless driving by young drivers who at times seems to have the impression that they are piloting a jetfighter and not a car. Accidents also happen because we have irresponsible people with driving license who in spite of being under the influence of alcohol are callous enough to sit on the driver’s seat not realizing that they not only put their lives in danger but also the lives of the passengers in the car and those on the road who could be killed because of the careless attitude of the drivers.

Accidents happen because of the kind of drivers on the road, underaged drivers, illiterate drivers who do not even any idea of any kind of traffic signals. Many of the drivers particularly truck drivers not only lack knowledge of proper traffic rules but they don’t even have the proper attitude required of a driver of a public vehicle. Why does this happen? Who helps put the illiterate and ignorant drivers on the road thereby endangering the lives of many who use the same highway? There are many players in this. It starts from every District Transport Office in the State. It is an open secret that license in these DTOs are up for sale if one only knows the right person to contact. The rate of the license varies upon the urgency of issuing one. The sooner one needs the license the higher the cost of the license. A driver who acquires a license using unfair means need not appear for any driving tests or any tests at all. He is issued a license pronto with no questions asked. What the staff in the DTO forget is that by doing so they are also issuing the person a license to kill. How else would one expect a driver who literally buys his driving license? At one point of time there were trucks drivers in Jaintia hills who had never set foot outside their village but they hold a driving license issued from South Garo Hills.

Then there are politicians and aspiring politicians who with good intentions of helping somebody acquire a license, take it upon themselves to visit the DTOs to get the license done. In the process these politicians and aspiring politicians too are helping someone get the license to kill without having to undergo the necessary driving test. Even doctors at times are also helping people to acquire a license to kill by not conducting a thorough medical check up of the candidate before signing on the dotted lines of the applicant’s driving license form. Our leaders are also to be blamed for every accident that takes place because the narrow roads that we have were not made to handle the kind of traffic that they now carry. In many instances the road is so narrow that is not even suitable to be called a national highway. Perhaps Meghalaya is the only state where heavy vehicles still have to ply through the towns and cities and this invariably causes traffic jams and road accidents.

Accidents can be avoided if only the drivers are careful in their driving and they respect their fellow drivers and the pedestrians walking on the footpath. Tragedies from accidents will decrease if we have drivers who really know how to drive and when not to drive. The staff of the DTO’s office can minimize accidents if they stop selling the license to kill to undeserving candidates, remembering that the same tragedy could visit them or their own families next time around.

Accidents also happen because motor cyclists do not care for their safety and ride their bikes without helmets. Even the pillion riders never wear helmets and they are never penalised. When we do not even care for our own safety, how can we expect to care for the safety of those riding with us? Police should be more stringent in enforcing traffic rules especially against two wheeler riders.

At times pedestrian too are to be blamed for accidents; we cross traffic signals at our own whims and fancies; we do not wait for traffic signals to change before crossing and we even cross the busy traffic where no zebra crossing exists. It reminds me a of a story of two teams of business executives one from Japan and another from US who were in a hurry to cross the street to a restaurant nearby. Since there were no vehicles on the road, the Americans walked across in spite of the traffic signal saying otherwise while the Japanese waited till walk sign was on to cross the road. The Americans who had to wait for the Japaneses asked them why they didn’t they cross when there was no car in sight anyway? The Japanese replied, ‘What if there is a kid watching us? What kind of lesson do you think he will learn if we cross when the signal evidently says “Don’t cross” We need to remind ourselves that we need to obey traffic rules not only when the traffic warden is in sight but because the law says so. What a great lesson indeed! If only we had the same respect for the law!

Commissioning of Myntdu Leshka: Is there reason to cheer?

The first unit 1 of the 3 x 42 MW, Myntdu Leshka H.E. Project (MLHEP) was at long last inaugurated, but the question remains: iis there any reason for the people of the state to be happy about the commissioning of the project? It took over three decades since its inception for MeECL to complete the project and at a huge cost. The project which was initially estimated to cost the public exchequer 363.08 crores has escalated to 1173.13 crores and exceeded more than 400 percent from the original estimation.

The MLHE Project which has the capacity to generate 126 MW of hydroelectric power was surveyed and investigated in the year 1975-76, but it took the then MeSEB another 23 years to prepare a detailed project report and the same was sent to the Central Electric Authority for clearance in the year 1998. The foundation stone of the plant was laid by the then President of the Country Dr. Abdul Kalam in the year 2002 and the deadline for completion of the project was set to be within 5 years. In spite of the President’s caution against any delay in constructing the project, the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL) took another 10 years to complete Unit-1 of the project.

What does the commissioning of the first unit mean to the citizens of the state? One would hope that with additional 42 MW of power supply at its disposal, the MeECL would have been able to provide uninterrupted power supply to its consumers (at least in Jaintia hills). One also dares to hope that now the people of Meghalaya are finally free of frequent power cuts and have 24 hours of power supply without any load shedding, but that is not happening yet. Perhaps the people of the state will have to wait for the completion of the next two units to be able to enjoy uninterrupted power supply, but the question is; when is that going to happen?

Patricia Mukhim, editor, The Shillong Times has in one of her very recent weekly columns rightly said that with regard to implementing the Myntdu Leshka hydroelectric project, the Meghalaya Electric Corporation (MeECL) has let the state and its people down. The people of the state were eager to see the commissioning of this project. So the question is, why has the Corporation not been able to complete the project on time? And what are the reasons behind the huge escalation in the cost of building the project? MeECL is one of the largest employers in the state of Meghalaya and the people of that State have high hopes in the Corporation. In Jaintia hills, at one point of time, several NGOs had even demanded that the government not only allot the implementation of the Leshka stage 2 to MeECL, but had even demanded that the proposed Umngot project be allotted to the Corporation. After the Corporation repeatedly failed to commission the project in time and was not able to control the expenditures in project implementation I doubt if the same NGOs will ever support the MeECL for any other projects in the state. As Mukhim has rightly pointed out, who will pay for the time loss in the delay of executing the project and can we afford a more than four hundred percent difference in the cost of implementing this project?

One expects that after the successful implementation of the Myntdu-Leshka project the Corporation with its experience in construction such projects will be able to even bid for projects outside Meghalaya. Obviously that is not going to happen. After the Myntdu-Leshka project, MeECL will be a Corporation with no confidence to ever undertake such projects in future. Even our own state government will think twice before allowing the Corporation to implement new projects. That is unless the state government is ready to waste another three decades of precious time and thousands of crores of precious tax payers’ money for another hydroelectric project. Now who is to be blamed for this mess? Someone, somewhere is responsible for this and punitive action should be initiated against those responsible.

The last time some writer wrote against the sloppy implementation of the Myntdu-Leshka project, there was hue and cry from the MeECL engineers’ fraternity. There was a letter in the Shillong Times which found fault with the writer Barnes Mawrie for a small error like the slip-up in the name of the river, to which the pious priest tendered an apology. But the MeECL engineers failed to answer the very important question that the people of the state and all the tax payers in the country have the right to know. What are the causes for the delay and the escalation of the cost of constructing the Myntdu-Leshka project? The engineers ought to be ashamed that they have not only let the state down, they have also let the Corporation down. Instead of defending their incompetent colleague, the MeECL engineers should demand for an inquiry on the sad state of affairs of the project. If somebody is benefiting from the embarrassing situation, it should not be at the cost of the entire engineer fraternity or the MeECL. The staff of the MeECL should demand that those who have failed the Corporation should be punished and the name of the corporation should not be tarnished.

After receiving several complaints from young, skilled, local tribal youths that cement companies mistreated many of them and young Khasi Pnar inadvertently were compelled to resign from their jobs, I decided to find it out for myself and see if the allegations are true. On a visit to the cement companies in Jaintia hills few years ago, I talked to one in the management of a certain company and asked him why the local tribals do not last more than few years when working in the cement companies? Pat came the reply that the locals here do not have ‘the industrial culture’. Now, I do not entirely agree with him that the cause of local youths being fired at will from their jobs is because they don’t have what it takes to work in an industrial setup, but there is some element of truth in what he said. It is the same with the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd. The Corporation is a corporate body only in name. The whole setup is still that of a semi government body. The babudom prevails in the Corporation, the engineers still behave like brown sahibs. The Corporation should start inculcating the industrial or corporate culture in its employees from the top down to the last staff. If the Corporation wishes to see any change it should start thinking like a Corporation and its staff should act like those working in a company otherwise the fate of the Corporation itself is at stake. The Government too should complete the process of corporatising the erstwhile MeSEB. It is high time that the government allows the Corporation be led by professional business executives or technocrats than the general IAS officers who are already busy with heavy government responsibilities.

Yes its time for the MeECL to put its house in order and make sure that the remaining two units of the project are commissioned soon. The Corporation should not bask in the false glory of being able to at least commission the first unit of the project. The people of Meghalaya have waited too long for the completion of the entire project. They would not accept the blame on natural calamity as an excuse and ‘better late than never’ as the answer. MeECL is a Corporation and it should act like one. “Hire and fire,” should be the manner of its operation so that it does not turn into a sick, loss making unit unless infused with government funds.

Lanong and his imaginary ‘green pastures’

Does it surprise anyone to see the news item in the Shillong Times (Wednesday February 22) which says ‘Lanong bats for cement cos?’ Well, I for one, am not. In fact anybody who follows the development of the allegations against the cement plants know for sure that there is more than what meets the eye when the Government which Bindo Lanong has co-led terms the findings of the High Level Committee which indicted the cement companies as inconclusive.

One wonders from where our honourable deputy chief minister got the information that there are grasslands in Narpuh? Everybody in Jaintia hills knows that Narpuh area is covered with dense forest and the area where the industrial activity is going on falls in the category of the un-classed forests in the records of the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council. If there are grasslands in the area, did Mr. Lanong happen to see any cattle, sheep or goats on his way to the cement company’s sites in the Lumchnong area? Well maybe because it is just one of trip so there is a very slim chance of him and his entourage seeing any herds of animals on the way. But in one visit to the area can the same Bindo Mathew Lanong concluded that the cement plants did not violate the Forest Act and did not pollute the Lukha River?

If all it takes is one visit to the area by the Deputy Chief Minister to gather all the necessary information to conclude the case, then I must salute our man for being a superman. Well, I borrowed this from a young net-savvy Meghalayan who made this remark on facebook when the statement of the same Bindo Lanong after his one day trip to Sohkymphor was made public. Bindo declared that the cracks in the village market is not due mining and there is nothing to worry about. The young man commented that may be our deputy CM is having those x-ray visions similar to that of superman to see what lies beneath the ground. If in just one trip and using only his God-given five senses, Lanong can declare what others in his position would sophisticated remote sensing before they arrive at any conclusion, it makes one suspect if the MUA government is really serious in its efforts to the protect the environment. If Lanong would have called for satellite imagery of the area taken before the cement companies started to pitch their tents in the area, he would certainly not make those off-the-cuff remarks in the press. But again who knows? Perhaps the forests in the images will change to grasslands you’ll never know. Or if only Bindo Lanong would request for a copy of the RTI and other information collected by the Movement for Right to information, he would have gained a lot more information about the area. But then again it depends if he is really interested in having the right information to make his conclusions.

If one would only use one’s sense of sight, one would see that areas like Syndai, Nongtalang, Saipung and Narpuh where there are huge limestone deposits, no grass grows in the area except broom stick which was planted after clearing the forests. And from the textbooks we studied in school, we learned that the area is covered with sub-tropical forest and not grassland. The problem is Bindo visited the places many years after the cement companies have started production and what did he expect to see? It is an open secret that the modus operandi that the forest department of the JHADC and the cement companies used before they surveyed the mining site for issuing NOC, is to ask the land owner to clear whatever trees were present in the area before the inspection. Another question that begs the answer is, is it true that while the entire area around the mines and the plant site are forested only the mine site and the site where the cement plants situated are grassland? May be MUA’s definition of forest is different from what was defined in the National Forest Act. In that case I rest my case honourable counsel. But if Meghalaya is still part of India and is governed by the same act, then the government is duty bound to make the findings of the High level Committee public and make sure that the cement companies follow all the relevant national laws to the dot.

Again if one trip is all it takes for our deputy chief minister without conducting any test whatsoever to conclude that the cement plants are not in any way responsible for polluting Lukha river, the question that begs the answer is, do we really need machines to conduct any tests anymore? And if Bindo Lanong is quoting the outdated and unreliable findings of the Meghalaya State Pollution Control board done after the first mass death of fish in the Lukha river, then may I also add that a scientist from the North Eastern Hills University has in a seminar held at Kiang Nangbah College, Jowai made public that he was not convinced by the findings in the report.

If one would walk from Sunapyrdi upstream to the confluence of the river Lukha and Lunar one would find that the river bed of the Lukha river is gradually being covered with layers of fine mud and this is not found in other dead rivers like Myntdu, Kupli, Waikhyrwi, Thlumuwi etc. Again unlike Lukha, once the rivers are polluted due to coal mining there is no annual reappearance of fishes, because the river is as dead as the dodo. Lukha is a different case study altogether. There is an annual mass death of fishes with the first rains before the monsoon and the last rain of the rainy season. If our deputy CM is really into physically examining the situation, one would only wish that he takes a boat ride from Sunapyrdi to the confluence of the Lukha and the Lunar to see where from the fine mud particles originate.

The Hon’ble Dy CM in his final statement has also stated that even local people and headmen (he forgot the dallois) welcome the industrial activities in the area since it has improved their economic condition. Using the same argument can we then mister deputy chief minister say that if selling drugs improves the economic activities of the people then the MUA government will support the people who sell drugs and turn Meghalaya to Columbia or Mexico? The debate is on the legality of the industrial activities. Using the same argument we can also say that there is no point of having the mining or mineral policy because coal mining and limestone mining has improved the economic condition of many people?

There are two things I have learnt from this episode. The UDP is no different from the Congress and all the politicians are the same and like my friend Richard Ford of Clark University said, they must have all been to the same school somewhere. Now what is so regional about the UDP? Does it really represent the tribal aspiration of preserving the culture and ethos of the indigenous people? I hope people will give their answer in 2013. Or is the Lumchnong area fast becoming the ‘biblical green pasture’ for everybody (proverbial sheep) from the headman, the dalloi, the NGOs, the churches to the parties and the government? Perhaps that is the sort of metaphorical grassland that our deputy chief minister has in mind.

Government losing precious foreign exchange

By HH Mohrmen

The Tamabil Dawki Land Custom Station (LCS) in the Amlarem sub-division of Jaintia hills district is a major land port and one of the oldest in the Northeast. With coal and limestone being the main products of the district it is not surprising that the major exports of India through the Tamabil Dawki LCS are the above minerals. The sad fact is that government is losing millions of dollars in foreign exchange exporting coal to Bangladesh from this port. A surprise visit to the port made one realize the truth that exporting minerals particularly coal has not benefited the state exchequer but only the exporters. In the process the state is losing huge amounts in foreign exchange and taxes. It is pertinent to examine these facts while the country is celebrating the golden jubilee of the Central Customs Act, 1962.

The state exchequers of both state and central government are made poorer in the process of exporting minerals from the District and this happens in broad day light. The officials of both the central and the state government turn a Nelson’s eye to what goes on at the port. This scribe visited Tamabil on December 7, 2011 and interviewed some of the truck drivers. One Leaderwell Dkhar said that the actual load the truck carries is 16 tons but when asked to produce documents for exporting coal to Bangladesh, the papers from the Meghalaya Directorate of Mineral Resources including receipts from the weighbridge shows that the truck carries a shipment of 9 tons only.

Another driver S. Dhar confided that the truck he drives carried 18 tons and some even claimed that they carry 20 tons but in paper all the trucks which pass through the Tamabil land custom stations are certified to be carrying 9 tons only as per the orders of the Supreme Court. The question is what happens to the excess coal exported to Bangladesh which does not appear in the books? The weight of the excess coal which is between 7 to 8 tons per truck passes through the port right in front of the nose of the police and the customs officials.

When asked by this scribe why the trucks were allowed entry despite violating the SC orders of the 9 tons limit, the answer I got was interesting. The policeman and Customs official who check the trucks before they proceed towards Bangladesh replied that their duty is only to check whether the trucks have all their papers in order and not to weigh the trucks. B Nongbri Customs officer in charge the Land Customs Station in Dawki (because the Superintendent M K Brahma is out of station) clarified that the duty of the Customs office is to facilitate trade through the port and also to ensure that no contraband is smuggled into India. When asked if he is aware of the Supreme Court order which prohibits trucks from carrying loads of more than 9 tons, Nongbri answered in the affirmative, but added that it is the duty of the District Administration to see the trucks are not overloaded beyond the permissible limit.

Trucks transporting minerals from this port, particularly coal are not only violating Court orders but the trade has brought a huge loss to the country in the form of foreign exchange. Nongbri also said that India is selling coal to Bangladesh at the rate of 50 US$ per ton and the average number of trucks passing through the Tamabil port is 450 trucks per day. Only 9 tons of coal per trucks is legally exported to Bangladesh with proper documents. The question is what happens to the excess coal which does not appear in any document? What happens to the 7 or 8 tons of coal per truck which is not accounted for? If one is to use a simple calculation to estimate the lost in foreign exchange from the illicit act, it will accrue to the tune of 157500 US$ (one hundred fifty seven and five hundred thousand dollars) per day. The calculation is arrived at by taking into account that only 7 tons of coal is carried in excess by each truck and according to the Customs officer the number of truck exporting coal to Bangladesh is average 450 trucks per day. At the cost of 50 US $ per ton, the total amount of foreign exchange lost comes to more than one hundred fifty thousand US$ per day, per month the loss in revenue to the central government in the form of foreign exchange is approximately 4725000 US$ ( 4.72 million US$) and if the amount is converted to rupees (@ of Rs. 45 to a $ it will come to the Rs. 21,26,25000 (Rs 21.26 crores per month). No wonder Tamabil Dawki does not appear in the list of the LCS which earns forex for the country.

Each exporter is issued a letter of credit of 100 tons. For every letter of credit and the cost of coal per ton as per letter of credit is 50 US$, but informed source disclosed that in the real trade coal is sold at the rate of 150-160 US$ per ton. Even on the 9 tons coal as appeared in paper, the rate at which coal is sold in Bangladesh is much higher than the rate specified in the letter of credit. Here again the question is how the excess money which does not appear in black and white, changes hands from the importer to the exporter? Talking of hawala and black money, there is so much of that is happening in Dawki.

A former exporter (who requested anonymity) revealed that sometimes the importers pay the excess amount illegally in rupees through the driver of the truck and sometimes the exchange is in gold. The exporter said that coal export from Tamabil Dawki started since the early eighties. Which means that the illegal practice of overloading trucks beyond the permissible limit has been going on for more than three decades! Hence, the amount of coal exported to Bangladesh from this port is more than what appears in paper. On December 8, a vernacular paper carried the news of trucks exporting coal from Tamabil land customs station to Bangladesh violating the Supreme Court order. A few days later the Customs office stopped the export of coal via this port. More than 700 trucks were stranded on the national highway 40 (E) because the Customs officials refused to allow any trucks carrying more than the permissible limit to pass through the port. In the evening of December 11 this journalist spoke to M K Brahma Superintendent of Customs Tamabil Dawki, and asked him the reason why the trucks were stranded. Brahma informed that his office has asked the trucks to unload the excess amount and his office will not allow trucks carrying more than 9 tons to pass through the Dawki port. Next day this writer again called M K Brahma and was informed that arrangement has been made with the exporters and their overloaded trucks were allowed to pass on condition that from the next Monday the Customs office will maintain strict vigil so that no trucks carrying more than 9 tons will be allowed to pass through this port. Instead, now, truck drivers are pressured by the exporter to carry 20 or more tons per trip.

The State of Meghalaya is also losing revenue in the form of royalty collected from coal produced by the state. Royalty from minerals produced by the state is shared between the state government and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council in the ratio of 60:40. The state is collecting royalty of Rs. 290 (rupees two hundred ninety) per ton from coal exported from the District, but thanks to the illicit connivance of the government officials, the state is losing royalty of Rs. 2030 (rupees two thousand thirty) per truck from the 7 tons excess weight carried by every truck which does not appear in paper.

It is also ironic that a port which trades hundreds and thousands of dollars per day does even have a proper weigh bridge. Till date the measurement in done in archaic volume metric or cubic meter system that too in Bangladesh and not in India. Former exporters informed that till 1997 both the exporters and the importers conducted a joint measurement to ascertain the weight of the consignment and this continues in the Borsara LCS till date, but for reasons best know to the government officials in the port, the process was discontinued.

The export of minerals particularly coal from Tamabil Dawki Land Custom Station is in complete disarray. The government both at the state and the Centre should do something immediately to address this problem and solve the quagmire.

http://theshillongtimes.com/2012/02/06/government-losing-precious-foreign-exchange/

Countdown for a clean and fair election has begun

By HH Mohrmen

No sooner did we turn the pages of our calendar to 2012 when parties in the State too started to sound their trumpets of war for the state assembly. But for the first time in the history of the state, apart from the usual inter-party fight for victory in every constituency, this coming election will also be fought at another level of the battlefield. Even before the final war bugle is trumpeted, soldiers are all geared up for the showdown to fight for their respective battlefields. But the battle that will be interesting to watch is the battle against the use of money power during the elections.

While political parties are busy selecting candidates for the 60 seats in the State legislative assembly another group of people with or with no political affiliation are ready to fight against the use of money to influence the voters’ decision in the next election. In one of my earlier articles I had commended Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit’s Clean Politics Campaign (CPC) and quite a few people were against it. The general view is that people supported the move the CPC has taken. Their only reservation is that it is being led by Basaiawmoit a politician affiliated to a regional party. I responded by asking them a counter question: “Do we have anyone else who is willing take the lead in the fight against the invisible and powerful ghost?” I further added that while it is very important to have the right leader for any movement to succeed, but the goal or rather the cause for which the movement is called for is more important and to me leadership issue is secondary.

The point is that those who wish to see change in the politics of the state and who are willing to contribute their time and energy for the cause must join hands and stay united for the cause. It goes without saying that to have a cleaner state politics after 2013, we need to change the way elections are contested among the parties because elections will decide the next 5 years for Meghalaya. It is for the people to decide what they want to see in the coming 5 years rather than allow the game to be played at will without anyone to referee the match that is to bring change; so let the public be the referee for the match.

In my humble observation the Election Commission and the observers that it deputes to oversee electioneering can do very little to officiate the match. For starters they cannot in few days learn the tricks of the trade (meaning the way the election game is being played here). The observers may be top ranking IAS officers but they must surely know that elections are different from one state to another. More over it is a new playground for the referees and in many cases these referees stay put in the government circuit houses of different district headquarters and seldom visit any place other than the office of the Deputy Commissioner. Hence the expectation that Election Observers deputed by the EC would play effective adjudicators is next to impossible. No matter how many observers are posted and no matter how many video cameras the election offices uses during the campaign period, the election can be clean and fair only when people participate in the process. Right now the Commission is only encouraging the people to the participate in the election by ensuring that they use their right to vote, but for a fair a clean election we need to encourage people to move to another level and that is to be involved in the process of having a clean and fair election.

We need to make people understand that it not enough to merely vote in the election and make sure the process goes off peacefully. For successful democracy we need to make sure that the election is fair and clean and allow a level playing field for everyone and that power lies in the hands of the people. It is here that we need organizations like the CPC and I am sure the more we have such organization the better it will be; because the area that needs to be covered is huge and time is very limited. The goal is to make sure the call for a fair and clean election percolates down to the last voter in the villages. Unlike the politicians who have all the resources needed and unlimited time at their disposal, the voluntary activists don’t have that luxury. Hence the need to rope in any willing volunteers on board the battle ship.

The abuse of power by the Rangbah Shnong during election is another reason why I have my own reservations about the institution. People should exercise their right to bring put this to a halt. Almost all leaders in the village desire to be Rangbah Shnong during election time and there is a big reason for that. During elections Rangbah Shnong in most villages command a price for supporting any candidate. There are cases that I know where candidates provided the RS with huge amounts of money to serve tea and snacks (and what have you ) to the villagers during the elections and the candidates make sure the flow of money is continued lest the RS changes his mind. Then the RS are also used by the candidates as canvassers to give an impression to the audience that the candidates command a majority in the village.

Some candidates provide the RS with a vehicle for all the 20 odd days to canvass for them and the RS goes on a canvassing spree as if he has authority of the dorbar. Some RS even have the audacity to claim that he has the entire village in his pocket. The people should put a stop to this and make sure that the institution of RS is not abused and if the person canvasses it should be on his personal capacity as an individual. The office of RS should remain independence to enable the RS to be a real umpire in the village during election time. Our own JFK (to borrow bah Paul’s acronym) and his grand council has a lot of work to do if the archaic institution is to remain relevant in the contemporary times. Bah JFK also has a personal experience in the last MP election ironically with the very institution, the cause for which he spends his time to advocate for. It was alleged that the dorbar shnong of one village in Jaintia Hills had rigged the election in the village in favour of the victorious candidate.

Once bitten twice shy, JFK should learn from the mistake and organize the traditional institutions and against their misuse during election and thereby ensure that similar incidents do not recur. The grand council of chiefs should make sure that the dorbar shnong do not announce the village’s entire support to a certain candidate because it is not only undemocratic to do so; it is also a case of misusing the traditional institution.

If we are to have a fair and clean election in 2013, everyone has a role to play and the Election Commission should also make good use of the services of movements like the CPC, other NGOs and even individuals who are willing to volunteer their time and energy for the cause. We must impress upon the people that rather than dancing to the tune of the politician in the “once in every 5 years tamasha”, it is time that we take a stand and stop the tamasha for good.

(The writer is a research scholar and an environmental activist)

http://theshillongtimes.com/2012/01/23/countdown-for-a-clean-and-fair-election-has-begun/