Inaugurating incomplete projects : Time to change this mindset
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 01 2016 -

The State Government has done it again.

Obviously nothing has been learnt from the past and the civil society organisations of Jiribam have every reason to be peeved with the decision of the State Government to go ahead and inaugurate the incomplete developmental projects at the sub-division.

It is this penchant of the State Government which the Tangkhul Naga Long used to the hilt to go on the offensive against the State Government, overlooking the ambush on the Chief Minister and his Ministerial team on October 24.

Incomplete projects is the slogan now used by the Tangkhul Naga Long to justify the hostile reception accorded to the Chief Minister and his men.

Jiribam did not follow the script of Ukhrul, but the civil society organisations there have already made their disappointment known to the people.

It was not for nothing why the Jiribam District Demand Committee (JDDC), All Jiribam United Clubs’ Association (AJUCA) and Jiri Development Council (JDC) went on record and informed the media that none of the projects which the Chief Minister inaugurated were ready for inauguration.

If this can happen at a sub-division one can only imagine how the situation must be like in the remote areas of the State.

Obvious that the State Government still has not learnt anything from the fiasco of the inauguration programme of the ISBT and City Convention Centre right in the heart of Imphal years back.

It was just before the 2012 Assembly election that the ISBT, new State Assembly and the City Convention Centre were inaugurated in the presence of the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and AICC president Sonia Gandhi.

More than four years down the line and even today, the ISBT is still far from being in a position to serve as a bus terminus.

If readers can recollect, then surely the damning pictures which The Sangai Express carried told the story of how the ISBT had been turned into one big public toilet with human excreta strewn all over the place.

That the State Government is still caught in this mindset can be gauged from the fact that the Chief Minister has already inaugurated a number of incomplete projects including a 50 bedded hospital at Jiribam.

One can understand the rush of the Government to inaugurate these projects well before the election code of conduct comes into force, but if the Government had set its eyes on inaugurating these projects before the 2017 Assembly election what stopped it from pushing the pedal earlier ?

It is this lackadaisical approach that the Government should get rid of.

Surely O Ibobi will not want to be remembered as the Chief Minister who is wont to inaugurate incomplete projects.

That will slur the record 15 years of Chief Ministership.