Bye to cashless transactions for now : Extending ban on internet
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 10, 2023 -

No fresh news of dashes and thereby no of new killings.

No new reports of localities being attacked and by extension no further news of houses being set on fire witnessing of local youths mounting vigil the night and as media persons having to move around in the dead of the night after.

Putting the newspaper to bed, no roadblocks seen and no hearing of clanging of the electric poles to rouse all able bodied \yOungsters to come out on the streets and keep vigil.

In short situation seems to have improved to a certain extent ever since Manipur or large parts of the State went up in flames after the May 3 Tribal Solidarity March.

This limping back to a sort of normalcy may best be seen in the decision of the State Government to start relaxing the curfew hours by a few hours where curfew has been imposed though the shoot at sight order is stall in force.

Likewise the Government has also started taking up the evacuation process of people stranded in different parts of the State.

Along with the evacuation process, the Government has also announced the ex-gratia to be paid to those who have been affected in the ethnic dash and the very fact that Chief Minister N Biren Singh himself took the opportunity to address the media in a press conference on May 8, ever since the violence broke out on May 3, is significant.

All indications that the reinforcement rushed in by the Centre to help tackle the situation is starting to pay off.

Or is it more a case of the initial burst of anger cooling down ?

The answer may lie somewhere in between, but it should not be forgotten that Manipur still has a long way to go before the healing process starts.

Granted appeals for peace and sanity to prevail has poured in from different sections of the people but it stands that it will take more than appeals for the healing process to get off the block.

Can Manipur come to that stage when everyone can unitedly start to walk the path of reconciliation and embark on a healing walk ?

Only time will tell, but the significance of raising this very poser should not be lost on anyone.

And this one question should be understood within the widely held observation that Manipur will never be the same now.

This is what is worrying for the 'no longer the same' line can mean so many things, such as things taking a turn for the worse beyond the point of no return.

Limping back to a sort of normalcy and perhaps this line should aptly sum up the Manipur of today.

This is where the limping back part is important for some reasons. Mobile data service was suspended in the Very evening trouble erupted after the Tribal Solidarity March on May 3.

Then the axe fell on broadband services namely Reliance Jio Fibre, Airtel Xtreme Black, BSNL, FTTH etc the very next day, that is on May 4 and the ban has been extended till May 14.

Solid and valid reasons the Government has for the ban on internet but then remember almost everything now depends on the click of the hanaset one holds.

For many parents whose children are studying outside, this means that sending monthly money to their children now is no longer a click of the handset away.

They have to wait until the ban is lifted.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is no longer just a new term or word, but is the preferred choice to conduct monetary transactions right from purchasing anything from a kilogramme of fish, chicken to medicines and even anything from the neighbourhood grocer and this falls perfectly in line with the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to go in for cashless transactions.

No wonder GPay PayTm, PhonePe, Mobikwik, Amazon Pay etc tffove entered the lexicons of the common people but with the net down, cashless transactions is not the present payment mode.

To many buying the pre-paid re-charge power tariff has also become a huge problem and more so as counters dispensing the same have remained dosed due to the curfew hours.

Making things worse are the cashless ATMs and closed banks.