Staff Reporter

Shillong, April 5: Social activist Tennydard M Marak has filed an FIR against Cabinet Minister and Williamnagar legislator Marcuise N Marak for alleged corrupt practices and violation of the model code of conduct in the recently held 2023 Assembly elections.

The FIR was filed with the Williamnagar police station in East Garo Hills District.

Tennydard had also filed a complaint petition before the Chief Election Commissioner of India on March 23, with copies to the Prime Minister of India, Home Minister as well as Chairman of the North East Democratic Alliance requesting their intervention into the matter and take necessary steps to declare the election of Marcuise N Marak to be void for adopting corrupt practices and holding a fresh election in Williamnagar constituency.

In the FIR, the activist alleged that Marcuise N Marak had circulated the Report Card of 2018-2022 on his activities during the last five years during the election campaigns.

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“What is shocking to note that Marcuise N Marak had circulated the report card (which was) printed and published by Jesubell Ch Marak (block secretary, NPP) on February 3, whereas the model code of conduct imposed by the Election Commission is in operation in the state with effect from January 18, thereby amounts to a clear violation of the model code of conduct and therefore, his election deserves to be declared as illegal and fresh election be held,” he said.

Stating that Marcuise has not only deceived the voters of Williamnagar but also a case of breach of trust, Tennydard said the report card is just a blatant violation of the model code of conduct by the MLA.

He further alleged that the report card contained a false and fabricated report of achievement during 2018-2022 but contains no agenda of what he will do if he is elected and thereby misguided the voters by showing his fabricated performance report which has no foot to stand.

“The report card also exposed the true picture of his zero performance report so to say as the works are either incomplete or not done anything at all but claimed to have done it. The pictures given in my petition to the Chief Election Commissioner of India will reveal the truth of my claim,” he said while adding that “The report card claims to have done beautification of the Williamnagar Girls Secondary School is nothing but a blatantly false and fabricated claim of Marcuise N Marak. If you visit the school today you will find the actual truth of his false claim as the school has a boundary wall with rotten rested C.I. Sheets and most importantly the Girls have no gate which is a must for any school.”

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Tennydard said he has waited for more than 10 days but unfortunately no action has been initiated till date for such an important issue.

“Under compelling circumstances, I am filing this FIR with enough prima facie evidence so that the police can verify the truth and initiate appropriate steps after due investigation and book him under the proper section of the law and leave an example of rule of law that “nobody is above the law” before the society at large – which is the need of the present hour,” he said while requesting the police to register a case under the proper section of the law and initiate strictest action against the guilty without wasting any further loss of time.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 14: Cabinet Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh has reviewed the functioning of her departments – health & agriculture – and asserted the need for regular evaluation of their performances.

“I would like to see that the department evaluate themselves regularly,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

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Stating that there would be a hundred-day plan in both the departments, she said, “I will work with the departments and we will constantly find a way out to be in touch with the head of the state because if that intervention which is lacking is not attended to then I think we will have the sense of defeat and we have to get pass this feeling of hopelessness in our service to the public. I will try my best to be there as well to make sure that I am able to do that.”

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Asserting that governance is not all about those in government, the East Shillong legislator said, “I think we need to give every MLA in the state of Meghalaya equal opportunity to present their versions of what our weaknesses, our challenges and our strengths are.”

“I would like to see that we work together as a team because Meghalaya will only shine if every individual elected to the House is given that opportunity to express how best we can turn around our system,” she added.

Referring to the health and the agriculture sector as two very big departments, the lone woman cabinet minister said, “I am also happy to know that we have now segregated a few missions whether it is with Agriculture or with the health department. Now we need to make sure that the missions we have embarked on actually materialize and start yielding the necessary results.”

“So I hope that we are able to do justice to all of these. I have also seen that technological interventions are a major component both in the health as well as in the agriculture department. They have tried to segregate each of these departments. They have given me the ideas of where are the areas of funding and which are the areas that need to be further improved,” she added.

Giving a quick review of the health department, Lyngdoh said that as a minister she has noticed that if there is anything that needs to work in the state, it has to be a participatory attempt by the government agencies as well as private players and the people and the entire unique system that we have in the state.

“I have made one major observation in the health department. The first thing is that finally we are now at that stage where we believe if health has to be understood we have to first involve grassroot participation. That was good thing I saw where we now are going to be involving the people in implementation of various health schemes in the state of Meghalaya,” she said while asserting that “We will never be able to address the entire problems of infant mortality or maternal mortality rate if we do not have people participating in it.”

She further emphasized the need to evaluate all health schemes being provided to the people and to also be understood by the recipients of such schemes.

“In the health department, we have seen that systems need to be installed. Now we are looking at the last mile approach which is again very good,” she added.

Also stating that the agriculture department has its own set of challenges, Lyngdoh said, “We now need to make sure that marketing is at centre stage in agriculture. That having been understood, we need to take it forward.”

“We now understand that organic farming is to a larger extent practiced in the state of Meghalaya. I have been briefed that we have some challenges there as well because our farmers are not used to this kind of an approach.”

She also commented on the cooperative movements and self-help groups in the agriculture department and said these are all people motivated oriented programmes.

She further stressed the need to make sure that auditing of all the funds in the two departments should be done by the people for the people.

Lyngdoh also stated that bureaucracy in the state has realized that people are important because it was quite distant five years ago.

“This is again going to be good for us and the state of Meghalaya and I am going to ensure that this good model is actually carried out in letter and spirit. This is one thing that I have seen in both the agriculture as well as in the health department,” she underscored.

Speaking about the upcoming Assembly’s budget session which will commence from March 20, Lyngdoh said, “I will again look at all of this once we pass the first Assembly. Budgeting is something which I am exposed to both in the health as well as in the agriculture department. I will not be able to comment much on whether or not the budgeting that we are going to receive will be sufficient to overcome all of these challenges that we have seen in the various departments.

Of course, we are depending to a large extent on central funding. So like every other department in the state of Meghalaya central funding is the dominating source of funds so I will have to look at all of this to see how best we can go ahead and make sure that we start performing both in the health as well as in the agriculture department.”

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 9: UDP leader and cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh today said there is a need for regional parties to rebuild themselves.

 His statement came after the attempt of the regional parties to form an alternative government could not materialize.

 “We need to rebuild and we need to do our proper homework. We failed because whatever unity that was there was so fragile, so there are lessons that we can learn and we have learned,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

 On the former UDP president late Donkupar Roy’s dream to ever come true, the minister however said, “Well there is a saying that between what is said and done, more is said and less is done and I think we have to try to walk the talk, set goals, refocus and reenergize ourselves.”

 The UDP has 11 MLAs in the just-elected 59-member House.

There is a little 10 year old boy in Shillong who has a funny way of looking at things. I call him “Ray” – A named derived from his Khasi first name. I am his mother and this is one of the many stories I have about him.

Now Ray had an intense hate for two subjects in school – science and geography. I’m still drawing nonsensical circles around science, but I think I’ve cracked geography and a geography lesson is one of the most fun things we do together now. I want to talk about a lesson we did a little while ago.

In this lesson, we read about the Thar Desert. The book said something really scary to Ray. It told him that the desert is expanding because we cut down forests and let our cattle eat away all our grasslands. This really worried him. Before we could go on with the lesson, he said, “But I don’t want the desert to reach the Meghalaya.”

I looked at him and said, “It won’t.”

“But the book says that it will.” He insists. “I don’t want to live in a desert.”

I had to think for a bit. See Ray has this way of getting fixated on something and then he dwells on it – a reason why I tutor him myself by redoing every chapter that his teachers have taught in school. His head is full of questions that he would never ask in a classroom kind of space, but he would demand an answer out of me.

“It will not happen tomorrow Ray.” I said, “We’ll all be dead and gone by then. There is no need to stress.”

This did not put him at ease at all. He was worried. “I don’t want to live in India anymore if the desert is growing mei. We have to leave India.”

“There are deserts everywhere.” I said.

“This can happen all over the world?” he asked sounding completely helpless.

“Yes.” I said thinking of Mad Max Fury Road. “But it won’t happen anytime soon. It will probably happen during the time of your great great great great grandchild so you have nothing to worry about.”

This calmed him down for a little while and I was able to finish the lesson. He had his dinner after that, brushed his teeth and got into bed.

As I was tucking him in he said softly, “But I want my great great great great grand son or daughter to live also.”

And it suddenly struck me that even I want my great great great great great grandchild to live.

(This piece has been written by Dalariti Nongpiur with illustrations by Hazel Kharkongor)