Govt apathy dominates historical Waikhong village
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, December 04 2023:
While it is imperative to preserve historical monuments, especially when it is related to development of human civilisation, ignoring other key sectors of the modern society is totally unacceptable.
Yet, one can see the lack of commitment in improving basic facilities of the modern world at one place or another.
This can be seen at Waikhong village in Kakching district, where an old salt spring still exists becoming part and parcel of the human civilisation in the state.
The salt spring is revered by the local people with the belief that it is guarded by a Goddess.
Hence, the locals safeguard sanctity of the spring, preventing entry of revellers though they allow visitors keen to experience first-hand the place of historical importance.
With traditional salt is no longer in use except for religious rituals and important ceremonies, the locals continue to extract salt only for religious purpose.
Considering its importance, the salt spring complex was renovated in 2017-18 by Hiyanglam MLA Dr Y Radheshyam under his local area development fund and inaugurated on September 23, 2018 .
Apart from the salt spring, there is also a government high school in the village, which is now in a dilapidated condition without any walls, doors and windows.
With nobody to care, the school has become a pool of dust and its compound filled with overgrown bushes.
Though there are some teachers posted in the school, most of them skip duty.
As a result, the locals gradually gave up hope and started sending their children to nearby private schools, though most of the families are poor who could hardly afford high admission and tuition fees of private school.
There is no compound fencing for the school and as a result, it has also become a grazing ground for the local cattle herds.
As all the doors and windows have been broken, the rooms with hardly any walls, have turned into drug and liquor joints, according to local residents.
Meanwhile, source from ZEO Kakching office said that there are five teachers posted in the high school while no enrolment list of students in class 9 and 10 has been submitted for this year from the school.
On the other hand, another villager, a farmer, said that there is no proper irrigation facility in the area.
During rainy season, they would face floods and during lean season, they would often face shortage of irrigation water.
The villager drew attention of the government to look into the matter.