The front page picture that we carried in the April 21 issue of this paper can perhaps be said to reflect the harsh reality of life in the hills much more effectively than all the sermons and long speeches that are churned out on a daily basis.

Harsh reality of life in the hills: A mother and her daughter both carrying firewoods on "Sum" in Tamenglong District


That we decided to carry the picture on the concluding day of the Open Discussion organised by UCM at the State Guest House should also not be lost on the readers. Life in the hills is about one harsh struggle to eke out a living.

It is all about meeting the challenges of life on a daily basis without any of the modern amenities that we take for granted in the city. Imagine a woman being carried on a stretcher by villagers for days to reach the nearest health centre (the story that we published some time back) and one gets a general picture of the reality in the hill districts.

There are still a number of villages in the hill districts which are not accessible by roads. Lack of health facilities and absence of primary education, malnutrition of young children and women, people dying from such common illness as dysentery for want of medical attention, trekking miles through the steep hills and dense forest to fetch the day's requirement of drinking water, complete absence of power supply.

The list is endless.

It is not that funds have not been diverted or earmarked for the development of the hill districts. However the unholy nexus of politicians and contractors and corrupt officials have always ensured that the funds earmarked for the hill districts invariably end up lining the pockets of the babudom and their henchmen.

With the next Assembly election round the corner, we now see Chief Minister O Ibobi and his colleagues visiting the hill districts and laying foundation stones and inaugurating a plant or a scheme.

This is what every Government does whenever the poll bell starts to ring and the SPF Government is just following a regimen that has been institutionalised. As Professor Amar Yumnam of Manipur University noted in his speech at the concluding day of the Open Discussion, development schemes need to be monitored and re-evaluated periodically.

So many schemes and plants that were unveiled amid much pomp and promises have never materialised and we will not be exaggerating if we say that going by the number of foundation stones laid in the hill districts, the five hill districts of Manipur would have been inundated with water supply, good road network and electric supply.

The expertise of the Government officials in executing the task at hand also needs to be scrutinised. This is all that more important when we talk about setting up a water supply plant or a power supply plant in a village in the hill districts.

Details such as the population of the village, the projected population growth in the next ten years etc have all to be taken into consideration when any developmental project is to be taken up.

Promises are not needed at the moment. What we want is performance and this is a legitimate right of the people to demand from the Government.