24 hrs duty : High on confidence Imphal to Nay Pi Taw
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 30, 2012 -

The confidence of the Congress Government is unmistakable. The decision to let all oil pumps located within Imphal Municipality Council remain open till 9 pm every day and two oil pumps to be opened 24 hours a day from June 1 speaks volume about a Government which is high on confidence.

Into his third consecutive stint as the Chief Minister of Manipur and Mr Okram Ibobi Singh seems intent on turning the massive mandate the Congress party received at the hustings into something concrete.

This is a welcome departure from the last two innings of Mr Ibobi when the State Government seemed satisfied with merely surviving one crisis after the other and exposing the common people to the hazards of the adversities made worse by a Government which mistook arrogance for a tough State.

Is this then the final say that Imphal is now a safe city where the people can venture out without any apprehension after dusk ?

Will Imphal get to know what is night life after all these years of living under the shadow of fear, apprehension, diktats and muscle flexing exercises by both State and non-State actors ?

Or is the badge of confidence worn by the State Government all about noise without any substance ?

Only time will tell but the message in the latest decision rung out by the Congress Government is loud and clear-the Government is confident that Imphal need not necessarily go to sleep as early as now.

Oil pumps remaining opened till as late as 9 pm with at least two on round the clock duty and the spill over effect at the commercial centres of Imphal can be gauged and central to this idea is the stand of the Government that they have managed to sanitise Imphal to a great extent and people need no longer live under a climate of fear and anxiety. The feel good factor is indeed overwhelming.

Even as the Chief Minister was presiding over the meeting to discuss the possibility of keeping all fuel outlets open till 9 pm everyday, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was onto his second day of the historic 3 day visit to Myanmar, inking a number of pacts and deals with the neighbouring country.

It may have been a co-incidence but the timing is too significant to be missed. Central to the Prime Minister's visit to Myanmar is the Look East Policy of the Government of India adopted way back in 1991 and the North East region, Manipur in particular, is the main connecting link between Delhi and Nay Pi Taw.

With the Imphal to Mandalay bus service ready for take off, with Delhi looking eastward and inching its way towards her South East Asian neighbours, the need to convey the message that the North East region is safe has never been felt as much as now and what better place than Imphal to do this ?

Imphal and Nay Pi Taw may appear too distant from each other, too ‘foreign’ to each other but the seeds sown by the Look East Policy is bound to bridge the geographical divides.

The speed in which the State Government has been going around with the proposal to set up a township at Moreh, the frequent visits by dignitaries from Delhi to oversee the road works taken up along the Imphal-Moreh stretch of NH-2 and the number of pacts signed by the Prime Minister during his visit to the neighbouring country are more than indicative that the changes that are being sounded in the heart of Imphal city may just have something significant to do with what is happening on the other side of the Indo-Myanmar border.