All roads lead to venue of Sangai Fest : Inconveniencing the public
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 23 2015 -

All roads led to Bhagyachandra Open Air Theatre on November 21, for the inaugural function of the Manipur Sangai Festival.

Maybe not all roads, but almost all the roads. And why not ?

The Sangai Festival is undoubtedly the largest State level festival in Manipur and down the years, the State Government has been putting its best foot forward to sell the festival to the world.

The effort to make the festival a grand success is acknowledged but has the State Government really understood what it is that makes a State level festival a pleasing experience for the people ?

This question gains credence in the face of the immense inconveniences the general public are subjected to.

This is not the first time that this has happened and what makes matter all that more unacceptable is the fact that there is nothing much to suggest that some lessons have been learnt from the past.

The Sangai Express has already questioned the wisdom of hosting the festival at the venue where it is being currently held and the growing traffic chaos on the roads leading to the festival venue should underline the point that is sought to be made here.

Why can’t some thoughts be given to shifting the festival venue to some other place to address the growing traffic congestion in the heart of Imphal ?

For those who come under the VIP tags and move around with security escorts, this may not be much of an issue, but how about the common people, the very set of people who come out to attend the festival ?

How about the people living near the venue of the festival ?

The tight security is welcome and understandable for nothing should be left to chance.

But strict instructions need to be given to the uniformed people on the streets to ensure that the security measures taken up do not end up inconveniencing the movements of the people.

Time to drill into the heads of everyone that it makes absolutely no sense to shoo off the common people from the road just to make room for the VVIPs and VIPs who come with their wailing sirens.

Evening, this is the time when the maximum number of people come out to attend the festival.

This is understandable, but why not plan the day’s itinerary in such a way that the programmes for the day are evenly spaced out so that people do not necessarily feel compelled to go to the festival venue only in the evening.

Why should the earlier part of the day be wasted ? Moreover has enough thought been given on the parking slots for the private vehicles ?

Why has no thought been given on banning private vehicles within a certain circle of the festival venue ?

Why not use public transport system to ferry the people from certain points of Imphal to the festival venue ?

Or has no thought been given to this ?

Such an arrangement can go some way in easing traffic snarl near the festival venue and it will certainly help the State Government to earn some revenue.

The festival is on and let the Government learn some lesson every time the Sangai Festival comes along.