NIT at Lamphel Pat

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NIT at Lamphel Pat

Lalkhogin Gangte *

When we are having our morning tea every day with so much bad news of blood and gore, killings, maiming and what not, the news that the NIT is to be established in our State is indeed an exhilarating piece of good news. We all welcome it because technology is the buzz-word and the most “in” thing everywhere today. However, the government seems to welcome it more for the opportunity it offers to kill two birds with one stone than for the institute itself.

Face off with the law maintainers - residents of Langol protesting against the government's recent decision to allot land to NIT

We were so happy that the NIT was the subject matter of discussions everywhere, be it in office chambers or tea stalls. We prefer suggestions as to how best it can serve our long-term interests. Keeping the socio-political reality of the State in mind, a few knowledgeable gentlemen suggested as to where it may best be located. A landowner in Churachandpur was reported as ready to donate his land for its site. An educationist from Churachandpur in his well-calibrated article highlighted in The Sangai Express the advisability and wisdom in locating it in Tamenglong District first to obviate its known over-all backwardness and secondly to remedy the general feelings of alienation and neglect that obtained in hill areas of the State. His suggestion presupposes use of the NIT as instruments of development and state-craft.

A doctor from Imphal East district also suggested its location in that district by rightly pointing out that, of the twin capital districts, Imphal East is much neglected and lagging behind Imphal West district in all respects. He also iterated in the said same daily paper the unduly high concentration of many infrastructures in Imphal West District chock-a-block and strongly pleaded for its location on a cluster of molehills in Imphal East District which can be easily developed for the site of the Institute.

Another strong point of his proposal is that there may be no question of eviction of landowners, which is the attendant drawback of the project, be it at Kiyamgei, Lilong or Lamphelpat Lourups. Another relevant point that crops up in mind is that availability of suitable sites, as such, in hill areas may be taken for granted. As for example, my own village land in Nungba area of Tamenglong District is about 9km x 7km and there are so many such villages in each of the hill districts. If at all necessary, more than ten NIT’s can be established in each of the hill districts.

However, the Government of Manipur refused to locate it either in Imphal East district or in hill areas on the pretext of lack of security and, after dropping Kiyamgei and Lilong Lourups, decided to locate it in Lamphelpat Lourup, inclusive of Langol foothills from Games Village in the west to the boundary of Sinam Leikai, Thangmeiband in the east, necessitating eviction of about 3000 people inclusive of foothill residents, agriculturists and those who owned residential plots but not yet reside there.

The affected people mostly consist of tribal from hill districts. For them the NIT is fast becoming a curse. This automatically means that only such projects which the government considered as to require no security can be established in hill areas. Whether there ever will be such a project or not in the future is anybody’s guess. What a sound, beautiful and wise development strategy it is! This mindset of the Government means that 92% of the total land area of the State is unfit and only 8% is fit for establishment of any infrastructure worth the name. What a bright future the Manipuri tribal have!

If security is the real impediment the Government, in consultation with the Centre can set up any security posts wherever it found necessary, on temporary or permanent basis, is known to all.

This time the excuse is lack of security, next time it may be lack of road connectivity or electrification or good water supply or anything.

Let’s digress a little. The tribal themselves particularly in Churachandpur and Chandel districts feel that there is acute lack of security for them, not for the NIT, from the depredations of valley underground elements who rap-ed their womenfolk with impunity and laid landmines causing sudden death or loss of limbs to so many sole breadwinners of indigent families, with the State government remaining unconcerned to take cognizance of their crimes and to pursue the cases to logical conclusions.

It may be guessed as to what retributive actions the Government must have taken and what sort of mass reaction may be there in case hill underground elements happen to commit these crimes against the women and men of valley area. If someone alleges that the State government is hand in glove with valley underground elements in their crimes against humanity, it may require too many Meira-paibis to hold too many Wakat-miphams to refute the allegation. In utter fear and helplessness, they fled for their chastity and lives in Mizorarn, Moreh or wherever they think they may be safe from their fellow Manipuris who have done to them what the Japanese had done to the Chinese during their war.

To say that the Institute is located in valley area as there is more security is the lamest of excuses, if it can be so worded, a total humbug and travesty of truth. As for example, was it because of good security that the only Central Library of the State got reduced to ashes? If the building located next to the compound of the State Governor could be so freely devastated by miscreants will it be realistic to say that there is good security in valley area? or, what is happening to the fly-over which passes through the very heart of Imphal? or, is it due to good security that Minister/MLAs were ambushed in Wangoi area in broad daylight and the weapons of security guards snatched so easily by whom we all know? or so many hand grenades and lethode bombs were so frequently hurled into the compounds of so many residential bungalows in Imphal and its suburbs? or, so many UG elements were detected and captured by the police from the official residences of so many (dis)honourable MLAs at Babupara? If I am not wrong, the chain of these happenings may be poor manifestations of genuine peace in valley area.

The fact is not due to want of security but because of the anti-hill mindset of the Govt. It may surely be because of disappointments and heart-breaks such as this, which have accumulated layers upon layers all through the years, that in total frustration the hill areas reverberate with murmurings of being neglected in all kinds of development schemes. To blame them off-handedly may be missing the whole point and beating about the thick bush of their deep despair; empty slogans, make-believe feasts and festivals and much-ado-about-nothing seminars and color slides in the valley notwithstanding.

If the government was not considering the valley area alone as real Manipur and if on the contrary it was having same concern for development of the entire State as other State government s do in the region such as, Mizoram or Meghalaya, etc. the feeling of neglect and alienation would not have arisen from any part of the State.

* Lalkhogin Gangte wrote this artcle for The Sangai Express.
This article was webcasted on 15th Sept 2007.

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