Changing faces of Ibobi
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 17, 2013 -

An interesting point that has been noted in the ongoing 5th session of the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly is the readiness of Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh, who is also the leader of the House, to accept the loopholes and faults in the functioning of various Government departments as well as in the implementation of developmental programmes and policies.

In place of an aggressive House leader, who did not easily accept charges of the Opposition during discussion on Demand Grants in the past, what the discerning public could not miss this time is a mellowed down version of the same leader, who appears to be more than willing to stand in the line of fire of the Opposition.

During discussion on passing of Demand Grant for Manipur Housing and Urban Development (MAHUD) Department, which incidentally is under his charge, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh readily admitted that all matters related to the Department like urban sanitation, drainage, traffic and transportation, housing, etc, are in complete disarray.

The Department is no longer functioning, there is no work progress in the construction of houses and drainage system and it has not taken up any work for the beautification of Imphal City.

More interestingly, the Chief Minister even mocked the employees of Imphal Municipal Council (IMC) for drawing salary every month without doing any work till their retirement from service.

Mind you, this is the same Chief Minister, who, in March, 2011, asserted on the floor of the House that his Government is giving top priority to solid waste management and cleaning up of Nambul river, Naga river and all other drainage system apart from active consideration to convert IMC into a Corporation for giving more teeth in carrying out all these tasks.

Similarly, during the Assembly session in December 2012, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh had cried out, ‘there is no violation of provisions of Manipur Liquor Prohibition Act, 1991 and the Act is still in force in the State though there are certain relaxation, such as sale of liquor at the canteens of Central and State security forces’, when the Opposition MLA from Andro Th Shyamkumar pointed out spurt in the sale of different brands of foreign liquor despite imposition of the Act in the State and suggested that such illegal practice/trade be effectively banned.

But this time, it did not require any coaxing from anyone for the Chief Minister to acknowledge that fact that sale and consumption of liquor continue to remain high in Manipur despite being a ‘dry State’ and liquor is easily available in every locality.

He even noted that the pros and cons of imposing prohibition in the State needs to be deliberated by both the Government and NGOs concerned, and observed that ‘it is high time that a serious deliberation on the issue is done for good’.

This change in the attitude of the Chief Minister towards the issues affecting the State and its people has been reflected even more clearly when Ibobi hit out at the conduct of some Ministers who do not even respond to the telephone calls made by him, leave alone picking up the phone calls by Opposition MLAs.

Now, the billion dollar question is, when the faults have been identified, how long would Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh take to find the remedy?

Perhaps, another Assembly session. That would be preposterous.