Nawa Loude Syndrome : Institutional collapse
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 16, 2012 -

The 'Babudom' is blind or just does not care, and there are two examples, alive and kicking, which should have earned them a sharp rap on the knuckles if not kicks, especially the type that hurts !

There can be no discernible reason for the Manipur Public Service Commission to maintain an aloof posture and act smug as if everything is hunky dory when the farce of the examination they are conducting to recruit, MCS/MPS/MFS and Allied Services officers have been laid bare in full public view.

Or is the Commission not answerable to the public ? Exact replica of questions asked in the 2005 examination in English Literature being (re)asked in the 2010 examination is not only taking things too far but is reflective of a 'damn care' or 'Nawa Loude' (in the Meitei parlance) attitude.

The other is the joke of a system which has come under the term 'On trial' basis in making Thangal bazar, Paona bazar and BT Road 'Only Pedestrian' zones. The idea is pedestrian, to put it mildly.

A closer look at these two examples point to a state of anarchy, a state which aptly fits into the universal understanding of institutional failure. Question papers for conducting a test which seeks to recruit the best brains to run the affairs of the State is not a copy and paste exercise.

It is and should be an effort of seeking inputs from the experts, collating their inputs and then sitting down to the task of setting the questions.

That this was not done at all has been proved beyond doubt and if the MPSC thinks that their job merely requires an exercise of leafing back to the past exams, picking up the one most easily available and then passing them off as question papers, then it is best to disband them.

We have said this before and we still stick to this stand and why not ?

A motive can also be clearly read into the copy and paste exercise adopted by the MPSC-leaking questions to the favoured candidates will need only a one line tip-'Just concentrate on the 2005 questions.'

In jurisprudence there is something called, 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder' and it is here that we may have an addendum, 'apathy amounting to more than criminal negligence.' Booking the officials concerned for the fiasco under some sections of the IPC which deal with criminals would not be stretching the law.

The other classic case of institutional breakdown, nay collapse, is the joke of the 'on trial' traffic regulations that came into effect from February 13. Who came up with this grand idea ? The traffic police ?

As things stand today, the Imphal Municipal Council does not seem to have any hand in this farcical exercise. Why weren't they consulted ?

Shouldn't it be a question of the IMC drawing up the regulations, of course in consultation with experts from every field, and then passing on the responsibility of implementing it to the traffic police ?

If this is not a sign of institutional collapse, then we may as well say that the World Trade Centres collapsed due to engineering defects ! Piecemeal approach is not the answer to traffic regulations.

If anyone is under the impression that traffic regulations inside the three said commercial centres is the answer to the traffic chaos in Imphal then he or she is living in a state of self imposed cocoon.

Only pedestrian zones is a good idea, no doubt, but in adopting such a system was any thought given on how to manage the traffic volume that will increase on the other routes ?

Germany was perhaps one of the first countries in the world to adopt the only pedestrian model and the question is, was any study conducted on the history of this model ?

Only pedestrian zones also 'encompasses' certain points such as the roads themselves being turned into markets, where the goods and items may be sold on the roads, in the open.

Anarchy, chaos, a free for all situation is a result of institutional collapse and this cannot be for the good of anyone, not for the officials who were responsible for this, not for the society as a whole and not for the future generation.

Manipur should embark on a mission to find the antidote to this malaise. The farce has been going on for too long.

For starters, review the joke that has come in the form of the new traffic regulation and take up fitting action against those officials for making a farce of the examination to recruit MCS/MPS/MFS officers.