Monday, August 13, 2007

Ziro-Hapoli Market Downs Shutter today

Expressing their solidarity over the attack on hotelier recently by 2(two) unidentified miscreants, who is still at large, the Hapoli-Ziro market downed their shutter today. This 12 hour Bandh was called jointly by Ziro Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ZCCI), Hapoli Baazar Committee and Old Ziro Market Committee supported by the Apatani Student’s Union (ASU) in protest against the failure of the administration to nab the culprit. Their demands:

  1. Immediate arrest of culprit of 6th August attack on the hotelier and
  2. Restoration of Law and Order situation at Ziro-Hapoli Twonship

In these recent past, Ziro-Hapoli township, which otherwise was considered safe and peaceful has witnessed a spate of murders-murder of an unidentified person at a Hotel room, beheading and dumping of person at the backyard of the house by a friend to take possession of murdered friends auto-rickshaw and most recent this 6th August incidence where a hotelier was attacked by two unknown miscreants with sharp weapons grievously injuring the hotelier. I too condemn the incident of August 6th but I do not endorse the way the business community retorted to protest-i.e., by calling 12 hour Bandh (I have written about bandhs here here). Weren't there other way of protests? Aren't they making loss of themselves by retorting to this Bandh call?

And now coming to the administration, it's high time that the administrators and law enforcers wake up and check such incidence and do their duty of making the place safe sincerely instead of just harassing the innocent and manhandling them if they want to instill confidence in the residents of this twin township lest the residents lose confidence in them and take law into their own hands.

8 comments:

  • Diganta

    Sad but true that this bandh is a 'culture' in West Bengal too. I hope people would resist it so that they avoid the same loss that West Bengal has suffered for last 40 years.

  • Anonymous

    Of all the places in Arunachal Pradesh, Ziro is the most sought after place for Government employees (especially for police force) posting, for this is the place where, at the drop of hat, people in general are ready to loosen their purse string to bribe those over pampered officials.People believe in bribibng to get through any of their works, rather than asserting their right as a responsible citizen to get their work done in a right and legal manner. People of Ziro are too complacent and meek, and remain in perpetual fear of authority. The frequent murderous crimes and rampant corruptin reflects the society, its weak willness, comlacent nature, its fickleness and apathy.
    The corrupt and weak society will be disruptive and violent in a self inflicting manner.

  • Anonymous

    @anonymous

    Self inflicting manner??
    and what is your logic? Does this mean ziro people are responsible for their plight, the lawlessness and the corruption.
    By your flawed logic, if someone is murdered, you will blame the victim instead of the corrupt policeman who lets the murderer go scotfree.
    Will you blame the people of ziro for duties that the police have? The AP police are the ones persecuting people instead of protecting them. So do we blame innocent civilians for this disease?
    People of ziro/Tanii are diplomatic by nature, well cultured and among the most highly educated, unfortunately that can be mistaken as meek and complacent.
    Anyway violence does not solve any problem, intelligence does.
    I am not trying to dismiss your comment, I just think your anger is misplaced.

  • Anonymous

    Cool down ATG :)

    Take his rant with a pinch of salt.I think its true that, after their own home town Ziro is a natural choice--all thanks to the place and its nice people.
    i.e.
    Beautiful place, plateau, peaceful and cultured public, good academic atmosphere for kids,well connected by roads, close to Itanagar but far enough from its lawless influence and so-on and so forth.
    Atleast thats how I look at it as a non-local:)

  • Anonymous

    O.K Cool down. I am sorry if I sounded too harsh and hurt your feelings. May be, I should have put across my point in a milder manner.
    Still, I must say that present condition of Ziro is nothing much to cheer about. Let me try to put my point in a more succinct manner.

    1. General condition of society, law and administration, civic ameneties etc are reflections of the characters of the people who constitute that society.

    2. Conscious and responsible citizen will fight for their right and demand works from govt servant as their right rather than bribing their way to get the meanest of work being done by the babus.

    3. For Law and administration thrives on the healthy participation of society, and are enforced and administered for good and welfare of the citizens of that area, it is the people who has to remain vigilant and alert and prevent the facilitator of service from becoming blind master and ruler rather than acting as means to facilitate good governance. It is the duty of every responsible citizen to ensure that public servants are there to serve and not to rule. To ensure that fence does not it up the crop.

    3. Well, one must not shy away from protesting against the acts of injustice and atrocities perperated by the administration. Protest they must, indeed. But neither should they hold society to ransom by their disruptive manners of bandh calls, chakka jamms, destroying public and private properties. There are more civil manners of protesting. Government has provided enough avenues to prosecute corrupt and derelecting officials.
    4. When I sit down to pray, I make it a point to pray for peaceful Arunachal, free of bandhs and strikes and free from every kind of violence and insurgency. I have had friends from insurgency infested area who are testimony to scourge that accompanys insurgency.
    5. There is a difference between being cultured and diplomatic and being meek, coward and apathethic.
    When a murder is committed again and again, when the criminal goes f scot free, when police and administration are not able to or say are not tackling such crime, what it reflects is a totally apathetic society, devoid of civic sense, bereft of civic responsibilty, ignorant of their rights, cowering and covering their helplessness and weakness in the flase sense of being more cultured and diplomatic. What is culture and diplomacy when it can not voice against crime, what is culture and diplomacy that nourishes crime and corruption. A healthy culture houses healthy society, a good diplomacy gets good deeds or desired deeds get done without evoking violent protest.
    6. Many a murders have been commited within Ziro town.Not that murderers are not known, they are known, but their names are whispered out of fear. How many of responsible citizens of Ziro have endeavoured to see to it that blatant murderous acts are taken to its logical end without fear or favour. How many eh huh...?
    When a murder is committed and the criminal not apprehended, criminal and police must be condemned, but when it happens again and again and again and society instead of raising against such crime in a serious and responsible manner, and instead demonstrates a lipservice protest, that society is to be equally blamed.
    7.AG had recently posted a case of midday meal malfunction which is reminiscent of general corrupt practice being borne by complacent citigens of Ziro. Midday meals are supposed to be served to mine and your kids evaryday of the school week. The less fortunate students of village schools are to be served this food so that they can have some semblance of nutrition in their diet. But even this is being swindled away by the corrupt babus and teachers. It is not surprising to see, atleast in Ziro, that all those babus who are with SAS are constructing palacial buildings and showing off flashy cars, buying lands and buildings right and left. There, there goes the money which was meant to feed the poor students. How many of us have raised our voice, stood up and demanded that money which was meant for mid day meal be spent on feedin g the students, not in fattening the bank balance of those babus.

    7. Another case in point is about the money spent on providing safe drinking water. Lakhs have been spent for providing safe drinking water to the people of Ziro. But where have they gone. The engineer concerned has just white washed some long ago built water tanks for public, and built a palatial residence and bought most of near by paddy fields for himself. All these things does happen right infront of our eyes, under our very nose. But we are just being humble and cultured enough not to protest and continue to be robbed of our money and resources.
    8. There was a joke sometime during late part of 1990s or early part of this decade, which I may feel priviliged to tell you.
    When one enters Hapoli town from school at treasury top, he will notice a sombre treasury office on the right side and a sprawling and majestic looking residence on the left side i.e D.C. Puttu. One of my friend who happened to be a circle officer told me that whenever people of Raga or Boa Simla came to Ziro, they would point to this house and say that the house belonged to them. When asked how come so, they replied that the owner of that house was posted at Raga as BDO and all the funds that was meant for Raga Block was spent on constructing that house, therefore, in essence the house was theirs. Oh ! how right they were. Only if they could have claimed it in a right forum and in right manner.

  • AG

    @ Diganta,
    Hope good sense prevail over the people soon and realise the futility of such bandhs.

    @anon_tani_gal,
    When anon/yasiyalow said,"People of Ziro are too complacent and meek", I guess he was not altogether wrong. This was what I too observed and come to believe in these years. Actually, we should acknowledge this fact and try to improve ourselves on this aspects and try to make aware ourselves of our rights.

  • Anonymous

    @yasi yalow and ag
    I understand people of Ziro are not very confrontational but, why should they be?
    What's the role of the police? What's the role of the judiciary? What's the role of the magistrate? What's the role of the District Administration?
    You can't take the law in your own hands ,the power lies with the above mentioned law and order upholders who fail to do their job.
    Your comment was that poor ordinary residents are specifically to blame whereas it depends on a whole lot of factors such as the lack of law and order. This is obviously due to police and administration not fulfilling their responsibitlities. Ordinary people are learning that it doesn't pay to be honest and sincere. So why not be dishonest? Nobody is going to punish you anyway and that is why I think the upholders of law and order are to blame not the people who have to face the harassment.
    The police and officials feel that they are not paid enough salaries so they have to compensate for it with tips 'goos'.
    It is a cycle where one feeds the other and in order to eliminate it I suppose you have to get to the root cause which is non existance of law and order.
    The bribe culture is even more rampant in Assam which has had a major influence as in babus and their 'chai pani kharch'.

  • AG

    I didn't meant that we should be confrontational or should take law into our own hands, what I meant was we should know our rights and should oppose it when we are denied of our rights instead of just waiting for others to raise their voice for us.

    upholding law and order is no doubt the role of judiciary and administration but should we be mute spectator when anyone is put behind bars for no fault of theirs--just because we Tanii think that going to prison is almost akin to committing a grievous crime and we would anyway bribe the cops to get the person released without even asking the question? Should we allow them [cops] to take advantage of this fact[social belief that going to prison is worser than committing murder]? Should we be partners in the corrupt practices that the authorities are practising or should we raise voice against it?

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