Rice at Rs 50 per kilo, petrol at Rs 110 per litre : Moreh in dire strait
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 11 2015 -

Rice at Rs 50 per kilo. Petrol at Rs 110 per litre in the black market.

This alone should be enough to underline the fact that the border town of Moreh is indeed in dire strait.

This is about the town and one can imagine how the situation must be like in the interior villages lying on the border area. Sort of a twin tragedy that has struck the border town.

Cut off from Imphal and the nearest town or city on the Myanmar side for days and Moreh may be said to have been cut off from the rest of the world.

Traffic has been restored along Imphal to Moreh route, but the ban on heavy vehicles is still in force.

Even light motor vehicles have to proceed carefully for there are still lots of sunken areas along the road and most probably not all the landslides may have been cleared.

On the Myanmar side, it is again floods and with the neighbouring country hit hard by the heavy rain, commercial activities have seemingly come to a grinding halt.

Moreh is a landlocked place and roadways are the only means to connect it with the rest of the world. But as things stand today, the roadways remain blocked and it is the people who have been suffering no end.

Tough to say when things will improve but reports say that the Government of Manipur is intent on restoring the connectivity with Moreh as soon as possible.

However it is never going to be an easy task. With long stretch of the highway having sunk, building new roads may be the only answer.

And building new roads means cutting fresh routes through the mountainous terrain. Not an easy task.

Apart from the huge fund needed to undertake such a task, there is also the question of whether the State has the requisite expertise to finish the work in good time.

Tough to say what steps Myanmar has taken up or is planning to take up to be in touch with the border town, but surely the neighbouring country too will find it tough, especially since the flood has affected major portions of the land there and not just the zone lying near Moreh.

The State Government must certainly be hard pressed in trying to meet all the pressing issues.

The vociferous demand to implement the Inner Line Permit System or enact a suitable legislation to protect the indigenous people from the large scale influx of non-local people, the recent agreement inked between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India and the flood which has ravaged many parts of the State.

The state that Moreh finds itself in at the moment is directly linked to the heavy rain and the accompanying landslides seen in different parts of the State.

It may not be unique to Moreh, but considering that this has come about when the country is fast tracking towards the Act East policy, this is all the more reason why extra efforts should be put in to address the issue at hand.

Moreover the Government cannot afford to overlook the fact that when one is talking about rice being sold at Rs 50 per kilo, it is the fate of the common people that is at stake. It may be a State subject but the matter should be highlighted to Delhi.

Moreh is the gateway to the Act East policy and to South East Asia and nothing should be left to chance.

Now is the time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demonstrate that the Act East policy is not just a verbal exercise.

The people too must think of ways in which they can contribute their mite or else things may just take a turn for the worse.