Incurring huge public expenditure : Paying for the failure of Govt
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 16 2015 -

Sanjenthong Bridge still undergoing construction as on 15 October 2015 :: Pix - Shankar Khangembam

The Government should take note of it. It is much more than inconveniencing the people but also about wasting huge public money.

Between November 17 and November 20.

This is the deadline that has been set to inaugurate the new Sanjenthong and hope that the Government is able to meet the deadline this time.

Remember when the old bridge was taken apart last year in May, Chief Minister O Ibobi had grandly announced for one and all to hear that the new Sanjenthong would be ready before the Sangai Festival last year itself.

That the State Government miserably failed to meet the deadline is there for all to see and experience.

Good to remember that Sanjenthong is the major connecting point between Imphal East and Imphal West districts.

This meant that people wishing to move from Imphal East to Imphal West had to take a diversion either through Minuthong at north AOC or go via Thumbuthong on the eastern side of Moirangkhom/Yaiskul.

The failure to complete the new Sanjenthong also meant that a good number of vehicles had to be diverted at other points leading to traffic snarl even at places far from this bridge.

A more than enough testimony that the Government just did not give much thought before dismantling the old bridge.

This failure is something which is hard to digest.

So in effect this means that the people have had to suffer the inconveniences for more than a year and while everyone has been talking about the immense inconveniences, there is nothing much to suggest that some thoughts have been given to the huge monetary loss that the people have had to suffer since May 30 last year.

Thanks to the initiative taken up by a young man and his friends, now it has come to light that the diversion meant that the public expenditure from May 30, 2014 till date stands at more than Rs 35 crore !

Difficult to say how scientifically this was worked out, but it is nonetheless a commendable effort and this should throw some light on how the people have had to suffer all these days.

Notably the loss has been worked out by only taking the diversion towards Thumbuthong and not towards Minuthong side.

If that too had been taken into account then the loss worked out would have surely multiplied.

Take the cost of fuel into consideration (Remember people have had to buy fuel from the black market more than twice or thrice during the said period) and there is no reason to doubt the figure of loss worked out.

Even if it is just an approximate of the losses incurred, this is surely a huge amount.

In effect this means that the cost of building the new Sanjenthong will be the cost of constructing the new structure plus the more than Rs 35 crore worked out.

Also significant to note that the loss has been worked out only through fuel consumption and the wear and tear that vehicles have had to suffer during this period has not been taken into account.

The loss is immense and is yet another example of the people having to pay a high price for the failure of the Government to stick to its time table.