When school went up in smoke
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 10, 2014 -

Fire at Kendra Vidyalaya (Central School) at Lamphelpat : Pix - Arunkumar Thongam (DIPR)

May 8, Friday, 2014.

Lets us mark this Day.

It was a day which could have gone down in the history of Manipur and its people as a red letter day, but it has unfortunately turned into one of the blackest day, just because of an act of arson.

On a day that could have brought cheers among the Government employees and pensioners with the the State Cabinet approving 90 percent of their Dearness Allowance (DA)/ Dearness Relief after a long demand and struggle; on a day when every sports loving person could have found a genuine reason to celebrate over the inclusion of 5 women boxers (Mary Kom, L Sarita, Sarjubala, Mandakini and Chaoba Devi) from this tiny State among the 19 selected for the senior women core crop of probables for this year’s Commonwealth and Asian Games and on a day when the long cherished dream of all of us to see an improved education system in the State through implementation of Manipur Education Service (MES) was starting to have realised with the Cabinet finally giving the green signal to appointment of 153 posts of MES Grade I, Grade II and Grade III through Manipur Public Service Commission, one of the educational institutions in the State, ironically, went up in smoke.

Of course, Manipur has a notorious history of targeting schools and colleges and related institutions with mindless act of arson.

But all these incidents in the past have taken place during the height of agitation over one cause or the other.

But the latest act of arson on Kendriya Vidyalaya at Lamphelpat on the night of 8 was so different from the rest that it has caught everyone by surprise.

Now that Lamphel Police have reportedly caught five persons involved in torching of the school including the mastermind, who has turned out to be none other than a student rusticated from the school some days back.

Piecing together the bits of evidences left behind like pasting of a warning note on the school gate, beating up of some student boarders, piling up of desks and benches in the middle of the roads to prevent movement of people coming or going for help, etc, Lamphel police have surely done a good job in cracking the mystery behind the act of arson in such a short time.

But this is not the end of the case.

Nor condemnation through press releases is not going to work.

Now, is the time for all of us, including the school authority, parents and social organisations working for the cause of betterment of education system in the State need to think over how the mind of a 17-year old boy has become so destructive that it could even influence four other people to become partners in crime?

When schools went up in smoke and the knowledge of education reduced to ashes, there would be no hope for future.

Let’s remember this, always.