Ignoring the route that feeds the people : Indifference writ large
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 14 2016 -

Inefficiency and indifference can make a lethal cocktail.

This is what the Border Roads Organisation seems bent on proving on the Imphal-Jiribam stretch of the National Highway .

The picture which accompanied the news item published in The Sangai Express under the caption ‘MNDF inspects Imphal-Jiribam highway’ should tell the story of how pathetic the condition of the highway is.

And this is not tolerable. Not the first time that the attention of the people has been drawn towards this highway and there is nothing to indicate that when this stretch of the highway makes it to the news again it will be for other reasons.

Not the first time that the Transporters and Drivers’ Council (TDC) has taken it upon themselves to repair the highway and make it at least motorable for the goods laden trucks and there is nothing to suggest that this will be the last time either.

A recap may be in line here. It was in 2012 that the TDC came out with its guns blazing against the BRO for its constant failure to maintain the highway, even going to the extent of demanding that the BRO be divested of all works.

Not that this has happened but no lesson seems to have been learnt from the past if one takes a look at the existing state of the Imphal-Jiribam highway.

Again it was not for nothing why the then Union Minister of Defence Palam Raju inspected the said the highway sometime in 2012 and it should be apparent to all that what was done then after the visit of the Union Minister was nothing more than some temporary measures to please the eyes.

The indefinite bandh imposed by the Rongmei Naga Youth Organisation on the highway stretch of Jiribam is not only a cry against the pathetic condition of the highway but also a stand against the continued negligence of the route that feeds the people.

Just how long has this highway been neglected can be gauged from the fact that no Defence Minister has deemed it fit to inspect the deplorable state of the road in recent times despite the loud protests from every direction.

The state of the Imphal-Jiribam highway is all that more unacceptable given the fact that Manipur is not only a land< locked State but is also prone to frequent blockades along the Imphal-Dimapur highway.

It is this which is extremely difficult to digest and while the BRO seems lost on what to do, the TDC has taken it upon themselves to make the highway at least motorable for the goods laden trucks.

Again one just has to recall the time when the then Governor Dr SS Sidhu personally inspected the highway by road, during the marathonesque blockade in 2005.

More than apparent that the BRO is unfit to maintain this highway and high time that the Centre takes note of this bare fact.

Pull up the BRO or hand the task of maintaining the highway to some other agency or department.

What one is talking about is not merely a road that connects two places, but about a route that feeds the people.