Water body at Lamphelpat : Govt’s idea of out the box thinking
- Sangai Express Editorial :: August 29, 2013 -
Either the political leaders of the day are under the impression that they can get away by making outlandish announcements or think that they can continue to take the people for a ride.
Or is it a case of these class of people mortgaging their grey cells to political capitalists or political entrepreneurs or having no grey cells at all ?
How else does one explain the rationale of the decision to develop a water body at Lamphelpat ?
Containing the scourge of flood everytime the sky opens up is the reason that has been trotted out to justify this decision.
Maybe a lesson in geography is what the doctors would prescribe.
Lamphelpat, note the stress on the pat, is a natural water body.
And developing a water body at a natural water comes close to saying that a decision has been taken to make Loktak lake a pat.
It cannot get more farcical than this.
By all means take up steps to tackle the problem of floods and water logging at Lamphel but to say that a water body would be created to tackle these problems is nothing less than giving a new cutting edge definition to the understanding of the term 'ridiculous'.
In the first place it is the myopia of the Government which is primarily responsible for the flooding and water logging at Lamphel.
The coming up of numerous Government structures, including the NIT, Government quarters, offices and of course the never ending Imphal Sewerage Project are the primary reasons for the water logging and regular floods at this area.
If a low lying area like Lamphel, which is in fact the biggest natural water body in Imphal is not flooded when it rains then which other places will get flooded ?
A simple point which has been given a complex touch by the refusal of the Government to look beyond this place.
Why not shift some of the Government offices to the Langol hill range, which runs adjacent to Lamphel ?
Or is this an idea of the Government thinking out of the box ?
An idea which no 'ordinary' person would be able to come up with ?
An idea which the people helming the affairs of the State can claim monopoly to without much ado.
But an idea which is far removed from the universal understanding of governance.
It is this mindset which has manifested in the decision to block one side of the road on the busy stretch of NH-2 in front of the Chief Minister's official residence after a bomb attack some days back.
So a mentality which cannot understand security beyond frisking and cordon and search has now extended to the decision of developing a water body at a natural water body, which is Lamphelpat.
The finer details of how a water body at a natural water body would be developed have not been spelt out as yet, but what can be said without an iota of doubt is the point that it will involve a huge sum of money and one can definitely work out the pattern of contracts and supply works that will emerge from this grand but outlandish idea.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.