Inter-State Bus Terminus : Befooling the PMO Benchmark of development
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 20, 2012 -

Detailed Project Report or DPR in short is the soul and the foundation on which any project should take wings.

This obviously flew over the heads of the suited, booted officials who drew up the DPR of the Inter-State Bus Terminus at Khuman Lampak, which was inaugurated amid much fanfare by none other than the Prime Minister of the country Dr Manmohan Singh and the Chairperson of the UPA, Sonia Gandhi on December 3 last year.

Inaugurated it certainly has been, but as things stand today, it is yet to come anywhere near the stage of being 'operational' and the SPF Government has once again succeeded in adding an addendum to the term 'inaugurated' if the present state of the said ISBT is any indication.

Against the back drop of back patting camaraderie, blowing one's own trumpet and under the glow of self illuminated praises, the foundation stone of the ISBT was laid on February 20, 2009 by the then Union Minister of DoNER and Panchayati Raj, Mani Shanker Aiyer, a man known for his witty repartee.

Wonder what he would have to say, if he were to be presented with a copy of the story which The Sangai Express published on February 19, 2012 under the caption, 'Sloppy DPR hampering ISBT work".

With the Look East Policy becoming central to Delhi's scheme of things and Manipur occupying an important position in this plan, literally speaking, any development project taken up in the State cannot be seen in isolation of LEP.

Government officials, the Babudom in particular, are not trained to think out of the box, we all know that, but at least they should be made to apply their minds within the box but this too has not happened at all.

Rudimentary facts such as development projects being taken up in the State being central to the idea of the LEP has obviously failed to register in their minds and the joke of the DPR that was prepared for the ISBT is an apt example.

Three years down the line and more than 60 days after the ISBT was inaugurated, fund paucity has been cited as one of the reasons for failing to make it operational.

Nothing can be more farcical than this.

Logic says that the very exercise of inaugurating the ISBT, with all the inherent flaws in the DPR, was nothing but befooling the public on the eve of the election to the 10th Assembly and making a joke of the office of the Prime Minister.

Some may subscribe to the view point that co-incidence is a small miracle where God prefers to remain anonymous, but we do not see the hands of God but of avarice and greed blinding judgement when the farcical story of the ISBT appeared exactly 24 hours after Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh jibed at the non-Congress ruled States in his maiden election campaign at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Come to think of it, the farce of the ISBT was inaugurated by the Prime Minister himself and the extent to which efforts must have been taken to hide the real state of this project can only be imagined ! Yet another understanding to the term ingenuity.

This is the limit.

Heads should roll, responsibilities should be fixed.

How can a project, taken up with the LEP in the backdrop be allowed to proceed without an iota of professionalism? Something as basic as working out the width of the parking bays for the passenger buses going awry is unacceptable.

Not in this age when drawing master plans no longer entails taking a pencil and actually sitting down to draw with scales and dividers.

Not in this age when Windows no longer refer to only the opening in a residential house, but means much more.

Not in this age when the word digital has taken a totally new dimension.

If such a farce is going to be the benchmark of development, then we rest our case.