Shillong, March 27: The Jaintia Student’s Union today had sent a letter to the Chief Minister regarding a miscommunication during corona crisis the Union has advise and suggest the Government of Meghalaya to make use of “one state, one law, one order” in these times to get rid of the confusions in the minds of the public.
The unfortunate incident that happened in Jowai, the district headquarter of West Jaintia Hills District in the morning of the 26th March 2020 when people decided to open their shops and subsequently the public both urban and rural coming out of their houses to avail essential commodities was a result of miscommunication and confusion not only among members of the public but also the authorities since they do not know which source of information to follow.
The citizens of Jaintia Hills are very disciplined in nature especially when it comes to issues of community but the press releases that came out from different authorities of the State and the local DCs was confusing. If you are reminded that the state government had issued an order in the first place that for one day will be opened and two days will be shut down with effect from the 23rd till the 28th of this month.
Furthermore, another order came up that will allow local cabs to run based on the oddness and evenness of their registration plate and along with this another order was issued that private cars will not be allowed to travel inter district wise. After this, another order was issued recently on the 24th, that CrPc 144 was imposed in the whole of East khasi hills District.
All these mandates that are being placed in order one after the other had therefore left the residents of the state especially rural dwellers, with no access to the internet and daily news, in a dilemma. Moreover, why is there this strange assumption that all the citizens of the State urban and rural have access to WhatsApp or the internet.
The JSU thank the District and State Authorities in their attempt to confine the spread of the corona virus through lockdowns. We sincerely hope that when and if the virus raises its presence among the citizens of Jaintia Hills and the State in general, we shall be more prepared.
But it shall be very unfortunate if the attempts by the authorities to communicate become unsuccessful if the public at large are misinformed due to multiple sources of information from the different government departments. The JSU therefore strongly urges the Government to instate a single window of information by using the services of the NIC, the DIPR, AIR, Doordarshan, private cable networks and the PA from localities to disseminate important press releases to the public instead of through whatsapp etc which not everyone can avail.
