State losses during the 64 day blockade might have crossed Rs 250 crore
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, October 03 2011: The economic blockade imposed by the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee (SHDDC) on August 1 and the subsequent counter blockade launched by the United Naga Council (UNC) has badly affected the economy of Manipur.

State government has suffered heavy loss due to the ongoing economic blockades.

According to official sources, the state government has lost more than Rs 250 crore during the 64 days of economic blockade.

Since Manipur is a landlocked state which depends almost wholly on essential commodities being brought in from other states of India, people of the state have been facing many hardships as a consequence of the economic blockades.

One LPG cylinder that used to cost around Rs 400 now costs Rs 1700 and above, sometimes going up to even to Rs 2000 at some places.

Stocks in the Gas Bottling Plant of IOC at Sekmai have dried up.

If the condition continues sooner or later, one will have to spend more than Rs 2000 to buy a LPG cylinder.

Even though petrol price in the black market has come down somewhat from the steep rise of Rs 150 per litre some days back, one still has to spend Rs 100 to Rs 120 to get a litre of petrol in the black market not finding enough time.

And some people who do not have the time to spend long hours stand in queue willingly pay this amount.

The steep rise in prices of essential commodities and petroleum products has caused many untold sufferings to the innocent public of the state forcing them to increase their daily expenses manifold.

In such situation, even the salaried persons find it hard to manage with their salaries given by the government or private firms, let alone the unemployed and marginal workers.

Director, Economics and Statistics Department, P Ibomcha told Hueiyen Lanpao that even though the department has not assessed the loss of the ongoing economic blockades, the state might have lost more than Rs 250 crore during the blockades.

He said that the state witnessed 20 days of bandh and 60 days of economic blockades in 2004-05 in which state loss amounted to Rs 246 crore with daily estimated loss of Rs 5.34 crore for bandh and Rs 2.32 crore for economic blockade.

In 2005-06, there state witnessed 48 days of bandh and 97 days of economic blockade which was the longest ever economic blockade in the history of Manipur.

With an estimated daily loss of Rs 6.13 crore for bandh and Rs 2.67 crore for economic blockade, state suffered a loss of Rs 553.23 in the year.

Total  loss  to  the  economy  due  to  bandhs  and  economic  blockades  on  NHs

Year		Number 	Loss	Total 	No.of 	Economic 	Total 	Total 

		Bandh	per	loss due	economic	loss per day	due to	due to bandh

		Days	Day due	to	blockades	due to 	blockades	Bandhs &

			to bandh	bandhs		Eco blockades		blockades

		DAYS	' (CRORE)	' (CRORE)	DAYS	' (CRORE)	' (CRORE)	' (CRORE)

2004-05	20	5.34	106.80	60	2.32	139.20	246.00

2005-06	48	6.13	294.24	97	2.67	258.99	553.23

2006-07	42	6.88	288.96	77	3.01	231.77	520.73 

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