Shillong, Sep 20: Kumars are ruling the state instead of indigenous officers, according to VPP MLA Ardent Basaiawmoit.
“People outside are saying that the Britishers had ruled over us and we are forcefully made to accede to the dominion of India and now after we had attained our statehood, we had expected that Lyngdohs, Sangmas, Marbaniangs, Kharkongors, and others would govern us. However, unfortunately we are now landed up being ruled by Kumars. There is a saying that there will be no smoke without fire, therefore it is for the government to take serious note of this perception which may be right or wrong”, Basaiawmoit said in the Assembly on Wednesday.
He moved a short duration discussion against the appointment of A Ali as full-fledged secretary of the Meghalaya State Council of Technical Education (MSCTE) after her retirement.
The VPP legislator from Nongkrem alleged favouritism in the decision to appoint Ali as secretary of the MSCTE since she had once forgone her promotion to the challenging post of principal Shillong Polytechnic.
According to Ardent, the number of secretaries on dual charge till date are six. They are Dr R.N Hazarika (Addl. Director), H.W.Tham (HOD Electrical), R. Dhar (JDHTE/Addl. DHTE), P. Karmakar (JDHTE/Addl.DHTE), O. Ropmay (JDHTE/Addl.DHTE) and A. Ali ( JDHTE/Addl.Director)
He said there were three HODs who decided to forgo their promotion as Principal in 2012, for not willing to take up challenging task and they are :Bhattacharjee HOD Electrical, S. Sinha HOD Mechanical and A Ali HOD Civil Engineering.
Later, the government had to appoint W L Warjri who is the HOD Electronics but junior to them.
Basaiawmoit pointed out both S Bhattacharjee (retired) and A Ali served as HODs in Shillong Polytechnic under the Principalship of W L Warjri before they were transferred to the Directorate as Deputy Director respectively.
In 2018, the government decided to appoint A Khongphai, M Kyndiah and SP Basaiawmoit as Principals of Williamnagar Polytechnic, Tura Polytechnic and Jowai Polytechnic respectively.
The MLA alleged that in 2019, the government promoted Ali to the post of Joint Director and this action by the government deprived WL Warjri from the post of Joint Director in DHTE and this has created a wrong precedence in which a Principal who has a field experience of institutional Administration was prevented from getting the post at the Directorate.
“Moreover, the same person who was promoted to the post of Joint Director in 2019 was again promoted to the post of Additional Director thereby superseded three Principals namely, A. Khongphai, M. Kyndiah and S. P. Basaiawmoit which is a clear indication of favouritism on the part of the higher authority to a person who had once forgone her promotion to the challenging post of Principal Shillong Polytechnic,” he said.
“Again the name of the person appeared when the government announced its decision to appoint her as the full-fledged Secretary of the MSCTE after her retirement. The question now is how this person can surreptitiously manage to reach to the level of Additional Director despite her failure to show an amount of responsibility to serve the department in any given situation?” Basaiawmoit asked.
And now she has prepared a post for herself after retirement. Is it justified for a person who had forgone promotion to avoid responsibility to be rewarded with such a post? Is this not a discrimination against our own people?” he asked.
The VPP legislator added, “I fail to understand why did different governments in Meghalaya choose to create this kind of environment among the officials where some are given favour and others are not. Have we ever thought what kind of situation we are putting those who are being deprived by this step motherly treatment of the government to its own people?”
The government should be reminded that it is being judged by conscious citizens for every action. “Therefore, I strongly feel that the government should find time to rectify its mistake”, he said.
In reply, Education Minister Rakkam Sangma denied any favouritism in the appointment of Ali.
