From the days of load shedding :: Electrified Manipur
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 30 2017 -

Taking the good things forward. This is how the people as a whole should read the situation.

The BJP and the Congress do not see eye to eye on anything but the announcement of Power Minister Thongam Biswajit that the State Government has set its eyes on electrifying the whole of Manipur by 2018 is nothing short of taking the dramatic improvement seen in the power supply system to a bigger and more beneficial level.

Rewind to the days when there was load shedding every alternate day and the point that is sought to be made here will become clearer.

And this is only about Imphal, not the district headquarters, much less the villages situated in the other districts.

So from the days when every leikai in Imphal and the adjoining areas were plunged into total darkness after say 5 or 6 pm every alternate day, today the situation has improved dramatically.

Load shedding every alternate day from 5/6 pm to 9/10 pm and in the areas where there is no load shedding the lights go off at 10 pm.

Effectively speaking, there was power cut every day.

In fact situation was so bad that everyone had to plan the day’s routine as per the load shedding schedule and so for areas which had to face load shedding from 5/6 pm to 10 pm, any plans in the evening or night had to be held after 10 pm or when the lights would come.

For areas which do not come under load shedding all evening programmes had to wind up before 10 pm or when the lights would go out.

Students too had to plan their study hours according to the load shedding time table.

Mind you this is for the areas which come within Imphal, which enjoy power connection and one can just imagine the situation in other parts of the State which do not get electricity.

This a rewind to the not so distant past but things have certainly improved and so from the days of perpetual power cuts and extremely regular load shedding, the people of Imphal today at least enjoy regular power supply and load shedding is unheard of, at least in Imphal.

This is where due credit should be given to the previous Congress Government for successfully implementing the pre-paid system.

Now the BJP led Government seems intent on taking the good work forward and electrify the whole of Manipur by 2018, if the announcement of Power Minister Thongam Biswajit is anything to go by.

The process of setting the ground work may have started from the days of the previous Government and it is encouraging to see that the present Government has set its eyes on taking the good things forward.

2018 and the whole of Manipur electrified and this is definitely in keeping up with the need of the time.

Power supply should not be seen only through the context of lighting up one’s home.

Without power it would be impossible to print the day’s paper or broadcast the day’s news.

Without power the traders who make their living by operating photostat machines, tyre retreading, etc etc would be hit hard.

In fact central to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to go in for cashless transaction is uninterrupted power supply and good network, as understood through the prism of cashless transactions.

This makes the announcement of Th Biswajit more significant.