Imphal, April 05: Outlining his objective if elected to Parliament, NCP candidate in the Outer Manipur Parliamentary seat, Holkhomang Haokip today said that development is the key to all the problems afflicting the State and the only way to foster development is by improving the road and bridge communication.

Interacting with media persons at the Meet the Candidate programme organized by Editors' Forum, Manipur at DIPR conference hall today, the NCP candidate said that he has been concentrating on improving the road communication in the State and he will continue to do so.

Holkhomang represented the Outer seat in the 13th Lok Sabha.

Stating that his attention has been drawn towards improving the communication network in the State right throughout his political career, Holkhomang said he played no mean role in realizing NH-53 and NH-150.A lot still needs to be done on these two highways, he admitted but added that he had a role in bringing these two highways to the State.

"While the rest of the other political leaders were sleeping away their time, I had started charting out a border trade link as early as 1980 and it was only in 1994 that an agreement was signed," claimed the Ex-MP.

The border trade is a fruition of this effort; he said and added that the only way to boost border trade is to improve the road network in the State.

Being a land locked State and in the absence of any rail head and water ways, the only way to go forward in the race to development is to improve the road networks, he observed and pledged to continue his work towards this direction.

Other than communication, Holkhomang said his priority also rests with improving water supply and health care.

On the agenda on his mind, if he is re-elected, Holkhomang Haokip said that he would strive and apply due pressure on the Centre to carve out another Parliamentary seat in Manipur so that the people of seven Assembly segments of Thoubal district and Jiribam AC may exercise their right not only to vote but also to contest in the election.

Expressing deep concern over the acute financial crisis gripping the State for the last many years, Holkhomang Haokip said the financial position took a nose dive when the then MSCP led Government under Nipamacha decided to implement the 5th Pay Commission.

It was sheer short sightedness on the part of the Government to implement the 5th Pay Commission without taking into consideration the likely consequences, he said and added that a number of other States, which are economically better off than Manipur are yet to implement this pay scale.

To better the situation, the Government should pay more attention to judicious collection of taxes.

However the manner in which the Government is going about it leaves a lot to be desired, he observed.

Touching a sensitive issue, Holkhomang said it is against the interest of the State that some Nagas are willing to merge with Nagaland.

The NCP candidate expressed his desire to do something on this front to persuade the Nagas to give up their demands and added that he has been working on this for quite some time.

"As an MP and as a political leader, I did all I could for the Nagas and the Kukis as well as for the Zomis and the Paites when the ethnic clash reared its ugly head," Holkhomang Haokip proclaimed.