National Highway 37 : The six year itch
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 09 2011 -

Nothing has been done to improve NH-37 despite the numerous blockades earlier - Pix :: TSE

If National Highway 37 or the Imphal-Jiribam route is the only viable second lifeline for the 25 lakh odd population of the State, then nowhere is the apathy, the insensitivity, the damn care attitude of the Congress led SPF Government more visibly imprinted on this highway than at any other place.

In 2005, Manipur received a rude reminder to the travails of depending on only one lifeline, the then National Highway-39, when the All Naga Students' Association, Manipur imposed the 52 days economic blockade.

Not that this was the first act of cutting off the lifeline of the people, but the intensity and the marathonesque imposition of the blockade had no precedent then. It set many minds working overtime and not surprisingly the need to open as many lifelines as possible for the State and her people was audibly articulated.

National Highway 37, then known as National Highway 53 was naturally looked upon as the alternative route.

It was during those days that the then Governor Dr SS Sidhu personally travelled by road on this route to get a first hand account of the work underway then.

Maybe the Chief Minister thought that travelling across this route was below his dignity and decided to stay aloof and did not venture once to see how the work was progressing.

No one will buy the argument that since it was the Border Roads Organisation executing the work, the visit by the Chief Minister was not called for. After the dust settled, the Imphal-Jiribam route was consigned to the backburner and nothing much was heard of it again, though there were the off and on rumblings on NH-2.

The ghost of 2005 then came back to haunt the people again in 2010, when the United Naga Council, followed by the All Naga Students' Association, Manipur imposed the 62 days economic blockade in protest against the conduct of the elections to the Autonomous District Councils and in the backdrop of the Government's decision to bar the entry of Th Muivah to the soil of Manipur.

Like in 2005, a ruckus was created over NH-37 and the manner in which the Government went hammer and tongs against the BRTF for the sloppy work was something amusing if not idiotic.

The lesson of 2010 was more than enough indication that in the five years since 2005, the Government did nothing, absolutely nothing. NH-37 was left to the mercy of all, the mercenaries, the highwaymen, in fact anyone with an agenda. The Government just sat on it fattening themselves.

This not only reeks of a totally insensitive, incompetent Government but speaks volume of a regime which just does not care for the people.

Afterall, it is not Mr Ibobi or his family members, nor any of his colleagues in the Council of Ministers who have to stay overnight in a queue outside petrol pumps. It is not their better halves who have to adjust the family's budget in the face of galloping prices of essential commodities.

Now with Big Brother Delhi instructing the State Government to concentrate on NH-37 and see how it can be improved, we can expect the high and mighty Ministers and the Chief Minister holding fort on the importance of developing the second lifeline of the State.

Any sane man, anyone with a modicum of intelligence would want to throw up by merely watching the shenanigans being enacted by the men who are known as the political leaders and their lackeys.

Six years, from 2005 to 2011 is a pretty long time and it should have been more than enough to make NH-37 an all weather highway, with goods laden trucks smoothly covering the distance.

That it takes close to four days to complete the 220 kms journey by trucks should be more than enough to drive home the point, that absolutely nothing has been done all these years.

To see what the past six years mean just take some few points into consideration. A 12 year old kid in 2005 would have become an 18 year old youth now, eligible to cast his first vote.

In the case of a girl, she would have attained the legal age to marry. From minors to adults, the journey would have been for these children.

Yet in these last six years, the Government did nothing worthwhile to make NH-37 motorable. Given the sheer indifference, the overwhelming display of apathy topped off by an overdose of arrogance, it is not surprising to see Chief Minister O Ibobi emplaning for a foreign jaunt when the National Highways were literally burning and petrol pumps had become the motel for the people to spend the night over.

The farce has been played out for too long. Entertaining any hope of seeing some improvement on this highway would be foolishness and nothing else.

How long can the people continue living in a state of self imposed delirium ? Wake up