Passport at Guwahati, International airport at Imphal : Mixture of opposites
- Sangai Express Editorial :: July 01 , 2013 -

Tulihal Airport at Imphal, Manipur in 2011 :: Pix - Robert Lourembam Ningthouja

It is official now. Tulihal airport is now an international airport.

International flights landing here and taking off. Hats off to that.

On the flip side, Manipuris or people of Manipur planning to go abroad have to proceed upto Guwahati, spend a good number of days there, spend a huge amount of money to get their passports as well as to renew their passports.

The irony is clear.

A 5 Star Hotel obviously goes along with a place which has an international airport and so it is that the Government has razed a number of homes to the ground and evicted a number of people from Kabo Leikai.

Development should proceed, no doubt, but development without a soul is no development in its strictest sense of the term.

A 5 Star Hotel in a place which cannot even provide more than 8 hours of power supply in a day.

A luxury hotel in a place which can supply potable water through the taps only twice or thrice a week and that too for only a few hours and it cannot get more hilarious than this.

Look East Policy, with Moreh being the gateway. And in line with this grand policy, there have been international car rallies passing through Manipur on more than two occasions in the last one/two years.

Putting Manipur on the international map. Splendid. Standing at the opposite end of this grand scheme is the National Highway that connects Imphal to Jiribam.

A stretch of 222 kms is the distance that separates these two points.

Not a marathonesque distance, in terms of the kilometres, but it becomes a super duper marathon, when calculated in terms of the time it takes to cover the said distance.

That the time is calculated not in hours but in days should tell a very significant story. The irony is complete. A case of Bharat versus India, a clever and hard hitting term coined by some fertile minds to highlight the disparities between the rural and urban areas or the super rich and the super poor.

The contradiction runs deep. Rewind a year back when the State Government announced amid some hype and pomp that select petrol pumps would be opened 24x7.

Cut to the present and this has all gone up in thin smoke. The 24x7 petrol pump should be seen in its correct perspective.

It is not so much about fuel being available at the petrol pump round the clock, but a step towards highlighting that the law and order situation has improved and people need not have apprehensions about stepping out of their homes after dark.

It is not so much about customers thronging the retail petrol outlet in the dead of the night but more about instilling a sense of security and confidence amongst the public.

A grand statement reduced to rubbles in a matter of a few months. Adhocism defining a Government.

And so it stands that for anyone from Manipur planning to travel abroad from Tulihal airport, they first have to take a trip to Guwahati to get their passports or get them renewed.

India and Imphal may talk and are indeed talking about a new township at Moreh with all the works, including the Integrated Check Post. Fine, nothing wrong with this.

But neglecting the second lifeline of the State, which has been at the stage of ‘repairing’ or ‘upgradation’ for more than eight years is a reflection of how the Government has got its priorities all muddled up.

Putting the cart before the horse can come only from a mind, which cannot register the fact that it is not only 2 plus 2 which makes 4 but also 2.5 plus 1.5 which also makes four.