This massive motor-bike procession protested the State Government's studied silence on certain KSU demands. I, for one, do not subscribe to such avoidable violence resulting from this rally, which reportedly entailed destruction and attacks on unwary passers-by, public properties et al.
In the wake of this uncalled-for violence, KSU was lock, stock and barrel pilloried by most people, including many in the Hynniewtrep Community, especially by those who are stationed outside Meghalaya, fearing retribution.
Nonetheless to ascertain the facts, in casual field interactions with many conscious citizens from different walks of life, a good number of discerning respondents opined that during the recent KSU rally, some hooligans, perhaps deliberately deployed by vested interests or so-called high levels, were used to leverage the critical juncture to resort to rowdyism to land the KSU in deep waters! This was done to nip in the bud their five-point charter of demands, conspicuously including the scrapping of the controversial Shree Cements public hearing in East Jaintia Hills District.
When all is said and done, the authorities must conduct an intensive probe and zero in on the real culprits, whoever they may be, behind this Machiavellian misdemeanor!
Yours etc.,
Jerome K Diengdoh,
Shillong -2

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

Editor,
It is said that justice delayed is justice denied. In Shillong, that old warning has become a lived reality - and the responsible institution owes the public an explanation. Credible sources have learnt that the Learnt Assistant District Judge hearing civil matters in this city is simultaneously burdened with the charge of Learnt Chief Judicial Magistrate-a post that demands daily hearing of bail applications, recording of evidence in criminal trials, jail visits, and a stream of statutory duties that cannot be postponed even by a day. One officer. Two full-time judicial mandates. By the time the criminal side of the docket is cleared each day, there is barely an hour left-if that-for civil litigants who have waited months, sometimes years, for their case to even be heard.
Let that sink in. Citizens who have done everything the law asks of them-filed correctly, paid their court fees, briefed their counsel, shown up-are being told, in effect, that their dispute will have to wait because the court itself does not have the time. Not because the law is unclear. Not because the facts are complicated. But because one human being has been asked to preside over two courts at once, and something, inevitably, has to give. What gives, every single time, is the civil litigant's right to be heard.
I ask the readers of this esteemed daily: how many families have watched a property dispute stretch on for years while the asset itself decays in value? How many small businesses have been unable to secure an urgent injunction in time to matter? How many litigants have simply given up-not because they were wrong, but because the system made pursuing their case far too expensive in time and money?
This is not an abstract administrative inconvenience. It is a daily, compounding injustice being visited upon the people of this city, and it has gone on long enough. I want to be unambiguous about where responsibility lies. This is not a failure of any individual officer, who is, by every account, stretched well beyond what one person can reasonably deliver across two demanding jurisdictions. This is a failure of institutional will- a failure to allocate the judicial manpower that Shillong's litigants are constitutionally owed. Access to justice is not a privilege to be rationed by administrative convenience. It is a guarantee under Article 21, and every day this dual-charge arrangement continues, that guarantee is being quietly hollowed out in plain sight.
The solution is neither novel nor difficult. It requires no new legislation, no prolonged study, no committee spending months deliberating the obvious. It requires the Hon'ble High Court of Meghalaya, which holds administrative superintendence over the subordinate judiciary, and the State Government, which must provide the resources the High Court requires, to do what should have been done long ago: appoint a dedicated, independent judicial officer to preside solely over the Court of the Assistant District Judge, Shillong, so that civil justice is no longer the leftover of a criminal docket.
I say this not as an idle observer but as someone who believes the judiciary is the last recourse of a citizen who has nowhere else to turn. When that recourse itself becomes structurally incapable of delivering timely justice, the damage is not confined to the litigants before it today-it corrodes public faith in the institution itself, for a generation. The Hon'ble High Court has, in the past, taken suo moto cognisance of matters far less consequential to the everyday citizen than this one. I respectfully urge it to do so again, before the backlog and the erosion of public confidence become impossible to reverse.
The people of Shillong are not asking for charity. They are asking the State and the High Court to make good on a promise the Constitution has already made to them. I hope this letter, through the pages of your esteemed daily, reaches those with the power to act-and that they act swiftly, and without waiting for the crisis to deepen further.
Yours etc.,
Phillip Oscar Pajat,
Shillong

State of Education in India in 2026!

Editor,
Close on the heels of the recent report that over one lakh schools across India are single-teacher schools, the Rajasthan government disclosed in the state Assembly that around 10% of the schools in the state have no buildings, over 2000 schools lack toilets and over 1000 lack drinking water facilities. All other indicators of education revolve around this severe infrastructure deficit. The Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) Campaigns laid bare deficiencies in the education sector. Fifteen years have passed since the Right to Education (RTE) law was implemented; however, several roadblocks remain in the path of educational progress.
The primary deficiency in school education is the lack of basic infrastructure. Poor quality of education and lack of good learning ability for children in government and aided private schools in India run alongside a lack of basic infrastructure in such schools. Only half of the schools have computer and internet facilities. The worst affected students are girls. A large number of girls and Dalit students do not enrol or drop out because of several factors. Only through sufficient investment in education and a visionary approach can we overcome this malaise.
Yours etc.,
Venu GS
Kollam