Turning projects on its head : SPF's recipe for governance
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 24 2011 -

The painfully long time it has taken stinks. The excuses doled out for the failure to meet the deadlines make it even more loathsome. Seven years down the line and what has the Government got to show ?

Apart from the juvenile excuse such as the ongoing highway blockade, the only indication that the Capitol project is still there in the pipeline can be seen on the road running on the southern side of the Assembly complex, where for all practical purposes one of the two way lane has been made the carbon copy of a bombarded route, silently embodying the assault that has been inflicted on the senses of the people all these years.

Nonsense is the word that comes to mind when confronted with the reason furnished for another round of delay in meeting the deadline for wrapping up the works at the capitol project.

To remind these people, occupying the driver's seat, the foundation stone of the Capitol project was laid on the bullet riddled, battered, humiliated and lifeless body of Th Manorama in 2004.

The year 2004 marked the turning point of Manipur in many ways. For the first time in the history of the land, the year witnessed widespread protest against the continued imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the nude protest in front of Kangla has gone on to become part of folklore.

For the first time the Prime Minister of India was constrained to fly down to Imphal and publicly address the issue of AFSPA by way of a press conference and for the first time a Commission was formed to review the controversial Army Act-the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission.

The long standing demand that Kangla be handed over to the people was finally conceded and the symbolic act of handing over the key of Kangla to the people by the Assam Rifles during a public function was something that history are made of.

All these came over the brutalised, lifeless body of Th Manorama and in as much as the Ibobi Government may want to portray it differently, the foundation stone for the Capitol project, the foundation stone for the Jiribam to Tupul and later extended to Imphal rail line cannot be divested from this historical fact.

And so it was that on November 20, 2004 the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the Capitol complex at its present site amid much fanfare but for reasons which are best known to the present Government, actual work on the Assembly complex started only on January 10, 2006 while work on the High Court complex started only on May 9, 2006.

The initial delay of nearly two years in kick starting the work may be attributed to different factors, such as the process of land acquisition but there is no reason why it should take so long for the project to see the light of day.

The present excuse bandied about is the ongoing blockade on the highways. This sounds like a poor joke. In the first place, there is no reason why the highways should be allowed to be cut off for more than 50 days. Doesn't this by itself say that the Government has abdicated its right to remain in power ?

Can a Government exist solely to enjoy the trappings that come along with being in power sans its responsibilities ?

Shameless will not be too harsh a word to describe the present dispensation in the face of yet another excuse for the unduly long time it has taken. It is not merely a question of some projects failing to meet the deadline, but is also very much about the inconveniences the people have been subjected to all these years.

That development comes with a price is a given, but when a high price is extracted on the excuse of bringing development then it is time to show the people responsible for scripting such a farce their rightful place.

Apart from the pathetic story of the Capitol project the Imphal Sewerage Project is another instance of an incompetent, corrupt Government robbing the last vestige of dignity from the life of the common people.

As things stand today, more than half the populated area in Lamphel have been reduced to the status of sewers and nullahs, creating artificial flood at the slightest of any rainfall. In short the Imphal Sewerage Project has come to mean turning the roads into sewers and nullahs.

This is not only turning the project on its head, but is also about insulting the sensibilities of the people given the fact that this joke of a project has been played at the cost of the people for the last many years.