Road expansion : Turning into a farce : Quixotic and idiotic
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 14 , 2014 -

Quixotic and idiotic. Incompetent too. What went wrong ?

Is it about the Government needing more land for the road expansion from Keishampat junction to Malom or is it about the officials concerned goofing up on demarcating the land to be acquired in the first place ?

Which department was entrusted to demarcate the land that was to be acquired ?

From the feedbacks that The Sangai Express has received from many affected pattadars, at times it would be officials from the Public Works Department at other times it would be officials from the Revenue Department as well as officials from the Settlement Department who come to demarcate the land.

This should be more than indicative that the Government was as confused as confused can be when it first started demarcating the land that was to be acquired for the road expansion work.

Obviously the Government does not believe in the dictum that the process of implementation is as important as implementing the work and there is nothing to gloss over this.

The Government may have paid the required compensation to the pattadars, but remember, a home is not only a concrete structure. It is much more than this.

There is always a sentimental and emotional attachment to a place called home and the insensitivity of the Government is not acceptable at all.

In the first place, they demarcated the area, gave the compensation and bulldozed their way through the structures which many call their homes. In the interest of the State and land and of course the people, this was acceptable.

But the latest move of the Government to acquire more land after the first demolition drive is something bereft of logic and rational thoughts.

Enough indication that the Government did not really do its homework before it embarked on the great exercise to widen the road from Malom to Keishampat junction.

Or it could be that the officials entrusted with the task of demarcating the land to be acquired were simply not competent enough, having no idea of the technicalities of land demarcation.

A sure sign that there are a bunch of half literate officials in the corridors of power.

A lethal cocktail it is. A bunch of highly incompetent officials and an equally insensitive Government.

By all means it is within the rights of the Government to acquire land as and when it is required, but it is unacceptable when the people are reduced to the status of nomads due to incompetency and whimsical ideas of the powers that be and this is exactly what is going to happen to many people living along Tiddim line, if the Government goes ahead and acquire more land.

People are not cattle that can be herded from one place to the other. And yes the people of Manipur are not nomads, with no permanent settlement.

This is a point that should register in the minds of the suited, booted officials and the kurta, pyjama clad political netas. But then the interest of the people has never been on the priority list of the Government.

After the first demolition drive, many families had started building a new home.

Now with the Government coming up with the weird idea of acquiring more land, does this mean that the newly built houses have to be razed to the ground again ?

Moreover if it was a goof up by the officials concerned in demarcating the land in the first place, then what about the compensation part ?

The Government is answerable to the people and they should answer these posers.

Already a number of people living along the said stretch have raised their strong objection to the absurd move of the Government and a stand off is a distinct possibility.

Let a competent authority adjudicate, maybe the judiciary.

Looking at the manner in which the Government has been running the affairs of the State, hoping that it would come to its senses would be a pipe dream. Period.