Inaugurated but yet to function : Race of the absurds
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 25, 2013 -

Race of the absurds.

From the promise of 20 hours of power supply in a day to the inauguration of landmark projects such as the Inter-State Bus Terminus, the City Convention Centre, Tribal Market to the failure to open them and make them functional, the State Government is obvibusly intent on living up to the understanding of this term. On December 23, 2011 Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson and president of the All India Congress Committee Sonia Gandhi landed at Imphal and went on an inauguration spree.

The new Assembly complex, the Inter State Bus Terminus, the City Convention Centre, the auditorium of the Manipur Film Development Corporation were all inaugurated amid much hype and fanfare.

Fast forward to March 25 of 2013 and there is nothing as yet to suggest that the State Government is anywhere near to throwing the ISBT and the CCC open to the public.

Nothing more than the jamboree spirit that accompanied the high profile inauguration functions to show for in the end. Nothing more, nothing less.

More than enough to provide cannon fodder to the line of thought that the said projects were inaugurated keeping an eye on the then coming election to the 10th Assembly.

If this was the agenda, then it did Serve the purpose of the Congress well, for remember the party returned to power for the third time in a row, winning a record 42 of the 60 seats on offer.

An election stunt to add more gist to the achievement list of the Congress party ? Election stunts are however far removed from governance but this has failed to register in the minds of the powers that be.

No wonder then that Imphal and Manipur continue to wallow in the pitfalls of almost all developmental projects overshooting its deadline, endlessly. The Imphal Sewerage Project is an example that may be quoted here.

Inaugurated but not yet ready for use. This should sum up the ISBT and the CCC as well as the Tribal Market at New Checkon. Nothing can get more farcical than this and in ensuring such a situation to emerge, the Government may well be credited for having coined a new understanding of the term 'inaugurated'.

Indifference, lethargy, inertia, inefficiency are writ large on these projects and viewed against this backdrop, it should not be surprising that the 20 hours of power supply announced by the Chief Minister, on assuming the Power portfolio shortly after the Government was sworn in last year, has been reduced to 6 or 7 hours of power supply in a day.

It is this pervading culture which has forced many tribal women to hawk their goods at the roadsides, especially along Dingku road, despite the inauguration of the Tribal Market at New Checkon.

It is this mind set which has refused to acknowledge that the Tribal Market is much more than a structure. It is about providing a space to the hill people in the heart of Imphal city, the capital.

Letting the symbolic meaning of a market space to get lost in the din of official apathy, is how the script has unfolded. All the more reason to question the Government why the Tribal Market has not been thrown open to the traders from the hills.

Inaugurating and not throwing it open to the public is again a testimony of how the Government has increasingly come under the impression that the public can always be taken for granted. This is the tragedy of Manipur.