Progress report of power supply 3/4 hours to 8/9 hours
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 11, 2012 -

Twenty hours of power supply in a day translating into a frenzied mob ransacking the office of the Electricity Department at Churachandpur.

This about sums up the huge disconnect between the promises doled out by the Government and the actual implementation of the assurances at the ground level.

It was not just a case of some group of people giving vent to their frustration over the erratic power supply but about a deeply entrenched feeling that the Government cares two hoots about the sentiments of the people.

In Churachandpur it was about a group of people giving vent to their frustrations and anger by targeting the Electricity office while in some parts of Imphal it was about a number of people calling up the newspapers offices to pillory the Government as well as to inquire about the results of the semi-final match featuring Mary Kom.

Likewise at Ukhrul district headquarters, quite a number of people had to go in for the generator set to watch the bout as the power supply started playing tricks.

Power supply has indeed improved now.

There is no doubt about it.

The progress report reads-from 3/4 hours of power supply at the beginning of this year it has now gone up to 8/9 hours of power supply.

And if the Government wants to crow over this, fine let them.

Given the mental disposition of the men lording over the crucial power sector, it will not be surprising if they are found preening over the statistics of 8/9 hours of power supply in a day of 24 hours.

Electricity is not only about lighting up one's homes or switching on the TV or the DVD.

Far from this, it has a direct connotation on the livelihood of quite a large proportion of the State's population.

The roadside tyre retreading centre, the group of young people who have pooled in some money to open a photostat shop, the computer centres, the printing presses etc all depend on power supply.

In fact so pathetic is the situation that computer sets distributed to Government schools lie unused, gathering dust, the CCTV cameras installed at specific points of Imphal have to rely on batteries to function and what has made matter all that more ridiculous is the story that the batteries too are not in a position to back up the cameras as they need to be recharged ! Comes close to a case of putting one's foot in one's mouth but there seems to be a method in the culture of putting the cart before the horse.

CCTV cameras, the battery to back them up, free computers for schools etc all translate into the process of awarding contract or supply works and this in turn can mean big money and kick backs.

A Government obsessed with contract and supply culture can only look to the next day and not to the weeks ahead.

This is one explanation why Manipur continues to be afflicted by unfinished projects.

The reason why the State continues to reel under load shedding, scheduled and unscheduled should not be too hard to understand.