Need to look beyond New Year-2019 : The tasks before Govt
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 03 2019 -

So bye it is 2018. Look back. And look forward. And look beyond 2019.

This is what is needed. After the BJP led Government came to power in 2017, blockades seem to have become a sort of history.

The point of importance is to see from where the State Government takes it from here.

No blockades, minimum bandh, good power supply (after the pre-paid system was introduced during the days of the Congress Government), but yet no proper water supply.

This is an assurance which the BJP promised before the Assembly elections in 2017. So how good has this promise been ?

This question is important for water supply is an important component for enabling the people lead a standardised life.

Almost two years down the line and the natural question that follows is whether the BJP led Government has been able to turn this promise into a reality.

In N Biren, the State has a Chief Minister who seems intent on ensuring the basic amenities of the people, but let it be clear that only reaching out to the hills via Hill Leaders’ Day and Cabinet meetings in the hill district headquarters will not go the whole way.

What is needed is governance. Good governance is a misnomer, a term associated with the then Congress Government for if there is governance, it should not be qualified by the term ‘good’.

Again in Chief Minister N Biren, Manipur has a Chief Minister who has seen how it is to be with a Congress Government and how it is to head a BJP led Government.

It is with this that The Sangai Express is of the firm belief that the Government should look beyond 2019 and to do this it is important to look back at 2018 and back.

After the then Congress Government came back roaring to power with 42 MLAs in the 2012 Assembly elections, it was hoped that the Government would function appropriately.

However no, this was not the case as everyone knows how the then inaugurated ISBT was reduced to a public toilet, with human excretra strewn all over, the inaugurated City Convention Centre reduced to a show piece with nothing to show etc.

Hope the BJP led Government has learnt some lessons from the past.

In Chief Minister N Biren, the BJP led Government has the right man to look back at the follies of the past for it was not for nothing why the then Congress Government was known as the IRB Government-the IRB- standing for Ibobi-Ranjit-Biren.

This was during the Congress tenure from 2007 to 2012.

After the 2012 Assembly elections, the Congress Government came to be known as the IGP Government-Ibobi-Gaikhangam-Phungzathang Government.

Nothing wrong with this for it was a Government, but hope that Chief Minister N Biren has learnt something from the past.

The reaching out to the hills is an instance but let it be clear that reaching out to the hills should mean more than Hill Leaders’ Day and holding Cabinet meetings at some hill district headquarters.

Let it be more meaningful and finding out how to make it more meaningful should be the work of political leaders of which N Biren is one of them.