Mandate of Elections 2017 in Manipur
- Part 2 -

Dr Mohammad Imtiyaj Khan *

Voting for 16th Lok Sabha election 2014 for Inner Manipur Parliamentary in Imphal City on 17 April 2014 :: Pix - David M Mayum

Equal opportunity act

Corrupt practices also are responsible for denial of equal opportunity to roadside vendors in the heart of Imphal. Among the many examples I can highlight, the purpose will be served if I mention here the corruption at ima keithel permit distribution. Apparently, some imas who are getting post-retirement pension are given permits to sell commodities in the market, whereas women, who have no other source of income except through selling goods, are denied permission. These permit-less women bear the brunt of traffic police and public disaffection.

If Manipur has to usher in an era of equal opportunity in employment to do away with corruption in governance, it should start from Khwairamband market a symbol of women's power. The market should be reorganised and redistribution of permits should be done to make this space an inclusive one where deserving women from every indigenous community in Manipur get permits.

Health and education

Proper management and timely public auditing will be required to improve health and education related issues. Doctors and teachers are not discharging their duties proportional to their salaries. Doctors have been recruited back to back by govt. The recruitment spree is often mockingly compared to a forced recruitment of anybody and everybody with a medicine degree. The competition was not tough (in fact, there was shortage of competitors compared to the vacant posts) and doctors with poor skills also got govt jobs. As a result, patients have lost trust in them and they often spend lots of money to travel to Guwahati, Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai for treatment.

Govt schools and colleges are losing out on quality. There are many contractual teachers, who are at par or sometimes more qualified than the regular teachers, working as beasts of burden. The current system is deliberately created one by the govt to pay less and extract maximum work. All of these issues have set off a boom in private institutions in the state.

On the other hand, many students prefer to go to metro cities for higher education. This has far reaching consequences such as weakening of state's economy owing to massive outflow of money for education outside Manipur. Unfortunately, most of these educated youths do not come back to work in Manipur. Before giving a serious thought to deal with the existing issues, setting up of university of technology would mean creation of another space for corruption and waste of public money.

Many underground organisations have issued warnings from time to time to doctors and teachers to perform their duties sincerely. Even govt has taken up occasional steps but, unfortunately, there is no improvement in the situation. While student bodies (some of them are groups of over-grown adults, drop-outs, but not students) indulge in politics and larger state issues, students are left armless to fend for themselves.

Implement land reform reform act

Only about 3% of Manipur's area is available for agricultural activities, mostly in the valley. The area is shrinking as a result of commercialisation of farmland by constructing houses, schools, colleges, shops, etc. Commercialisation is promoted by frequent distress selling of farmland by farmers to raise funds for bribe paid during govt recruitments. This reduces the landed-farmers from owners to servants.

A farmland can be used by generations of a family, whereas a govt job (no pension anymore) is meant only for a person. There is limited effort by govt and civil society organisations to protect farmland from commercial activity other than agriculture. The paddy land conservation and land reform act 2014 remains to be implemented. In Kerala, farmland is effectively protected under various acts and buyers of farmland are required to do only farming activity in farmland.

Ours is subsistence agriculture. With time, farming is becoming costly, time consuming and a profession which is often considered lowly. The diminishing self-confidence of farming community of Manipur needs a boost by making it more productive. There are different ways to achieve this. Agri-produce can be marketed through co-operative societies who procure and store the produce until sold out.

Such societies can co-ordinate with Krishi Vigyan Kendra and district agricultural officers to brief the farmers on maximum utilisation of resources by integrating poultry and pisciculture to agri-horti activities, organic farming and advise on profitable crops for a season depending on the changing rainfall pattern. Frequent interactions and outreach programmes could be conducted. The co-operative body can establish proper channel for export of the indigenous organically grown agri-produce for good price. Processing of left-over fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, etc will further increase our income.

Inclusive Manipur Tourism Policy

The per capita income of Indians is rising. Hence, Indians have considerable disposable income. This has led to surge in tourism business. Manipur's pristine beauty is poorly tapped for tourism activity. The support system for tourist spot development is weak and non-inclusive. Govt should prepare a public-private partnership plan to develop local tourist places with restaurants serving local food, hotels for boarding and market it to national and international backpackers.

Although Manipur tourism policy was formulated in 2014, there is much to be done for implementing the policy. The policy seems to have missed the idea of tapping natural resources of Manipur such as inland water. Some years back there was a plan to develop inland waterways in Manipur. It was welcome but with riders. The flood-prone river banks need to be strengthened first before any inland waterways come into operation.

There is absolute need for exploring the biodiversity hotspot under Manipur's geographical area to document and work out a strategy for regulated commercialisation of forest resources including medicinal, ornamental and other high value plants.

Given that Manipur has a good number of educated people and inhospitable state of affairs, it will be not wrong to presume that the intellectuals do not speak up their mind for public good against the sorry state of affairs. They are aware of all the potential election issues highlighted here. Moreover, there is state apparatus on paper to deal with these issues but they are all either dysfunctional, ineffective or yet to implement.

During elections, these issues are kept on backburner and the contestant's sagei, financial standing, and community come to forefront. Electioneering in Manipur is limited to some vague promises here and some show-off there. The candidates fail to set priorities right as cash-for-vote takes over the core development issues and the issues of public interest become a blind spot for them. Contestants with strong academic background and clear mandate should be supported in the coming elections. National parties cannot understand and fulfil local needs.

Therefore, never mind if you are voting for an independent or regional party as long as they are in the know of core development issues. They can generate political will through debate, even if they are not in power, to usher in a better future. If they somehow fail to deliver on the mandate, at least, we can expect that they will raise the quality of debate in the assembly. In a majoritarian democracy, only voters can challenge the mindset of elected representatives to be innovative.

Concluded.....