Letter from the Editor-in-Chief
Dear friends
The Garo hills of Meghalaya is indeed in crisis. Hardly a day passes when no looting, killing, extortion, crime against women, bandh or hartals takes place. The so called human rights have been severely violated by these so called underground insurgent outfits. The number of insurgent outfits has mushroomed from ten to eighteen in the past four years. The paradox is that our Chief Minister who is young and educated comes from this region itself and interestingly, the Member of Parliament from Garo Hills is none other than Mr. P. A. Sangma who himself is a legend in Indian politics. These two great personalities are fighting with each other and exchanging invectives, blaming each other for the situation that has developed in Garo Hills. At times, it appears that personal political mileage has become more important for them than service to the people whom they represent. The region which lacks connectivity and suffers from poor health and educational infrastructure has remained the most backward part of the state of Meghalaya. Our cover story this month written by Senior Journalist Sumar Sing Sawain gives a detailed account of the situation that prevails in the Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. We only hope that wisdom will prevail and things will be soon brought under control by the state.
Connectivity in the North Eastern Region has always remained an issue of great concern. Not only do we lack proper connectivity but also whatever little we do have is in an absolutely poor shape. This month, Mr. Jyotilal Choudhury has investigated the ground realities of East West Corridor to connect Silchar with Saurashtra. Despite this being a national project, it has run into rough weather because of non clearance from the Environment Ministry, threat by extortionists and lack of proper supervision to name a few reasons. We also have DoNER Minister General (Dr.) Vijay Kumar Singh in our support. We have suggested an agenda of action to the DoNER Minister and we only hope that this time the DoNER Minister will hold his full term in the office. In the past we have seen that ever since this Ministry was created, no Minister has completed its full term.
It is said that we cannot change our neighbours. Rightly, thus, the new Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi is paying due importance to our neighbours. He recently visited Bhutan which occupies a very important place in the geo-politics of India. Bhutan is the only country which does not have any political relationship with China. Mr. Dwaipayan has brought out a report on the issue which in itself is immensely interesting. As Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister had rightly said during his visit to the hill nation, that India and Bhutan are the members of the same Himalayan family.