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WOMAN CAN BE STRIPPED OF HER ST STATUS

The  Khasi  Hills District  Council,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Chief  Executive  Member,  Hispreaching  Son  Shylla has  brought  a  bill,  to  deny  any  indigenous  woman  marrying a non-indigenous  person, benefits  of  Schedule  tribes,  which  had  brought  a  mixed  reaction,  from  the  political,  social and  other  level  of  society, The  Bill  states  any  woman  defying  the  principle of the bill,  Will be  stripped  off her  scheduled  tribe  status  and  other  privileges.   Mix marriage  has  been  and  is  a  practice  that  has  been  going   on,  not  only  in  the  Khasi  society,  but  also  other communities,  as  it  is  regarded  of  being  a  private  affair   of  two  persons with  the  consent of  their  respective  families. What  the  District  Council   Bill is trying to aim at,  is  that, mix-marriage  can  be  commercialized by  a  non-indigenous  person,  by  using the  name  of  his  spouse  for  his  business  interest,  thus  not  being  bound  by  the  various  taxes  and formalities,  which  is  commonly  known as a Benami  run  business. The  bill  would  however  run  into  many social  complexities, and also  the   interference into private social relationship,  and  also customary  laws  of  the various  clans  of  the  Khasi  community.

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Born in Kandhulimari village in Assam to rice farmers Ronjit and Jonali Das, Hima Das is the eldest of four children. From her days in the village, Hima spent her times playing football with the boys from her village besides helping her parents in the paddy fields. She attended Dhing Public School and would participate in local football tournament in an around her village. Being a sport enthusiastic her school Physical Education Teacher Shamsul Haque encourage her to take up athletics in short and middle distance races. He later introduced her to Gowri Shankar Roy of the Nagaon Sports Association for her proper training. With proper training she first made impression when she qualified for an inter-district competition and won two Gold medals at the sports meet. She could not appear for her Higher Secondary Arts stream final examination this year as she was busy in the Commonwealth Games but that doesn’t bother her parents as the family was confident of her bringing laurels to the State and country as a whole someday.

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CENSOR ON CM SPEECH

This is the first time in Independent India, the speech of a Chief Minister is censored, in which a number of restrictions have been imposed. It so happens the Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad K. Sangma is still not a member of the State Legislative Assembly, and therefore he is debarred and not entitled to speak upon any subject matter, that pertain to the development activities of the state government. The Election Commission had issued a specific instructions, that the Chief Minister should be guided by the model code of conduct and that his speech does not contain, any achievement of the government, nor announce any scheme or development project that the state contemplate to take up. This would be the first time the freedom of speech has been denied to a Chief minister in delivering the independence message to the people, being tongue-tied by law.

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NO SUBSTITUTE FOR ORGANIC 

Where  health  is  concern,  there  is  no  substitute  for  organic  food.  Shillong  takes  pride  in  having  an  organic  food  producing  locality  in  the  outskirts,  that  is  Lawsohtun in  which  the  Dorbar  Shnong  has  prohibited  in  using  any  chemicals  in  the  planting  of  specially  vegetables.  People  from  the  city  would  specially  go  to  Lawsohtun  for  organic  products,  which  are  sold  at reasonable  rates. The Union  Minister for Agriculture  and Farmers  Welfare Radha Mohan Singh on  hearing of  the  organic  locality  in  Shillong was quite excited to visit  Lawsohtun. The  locality  mainly  depend  on  organic  farming  for  the  livelihood  of  the   settlers  and  had  formed  an  association  of  20  households. The  organic  farmers  had  all  along  demanded   separate  space  in  markets   for  their  products.