Sangai festival : Getting closer to 'Tourism' : Complementing LEP
- Sangai Express Editorial :: November 08 , 2013 -

First international flight from Myanmar scheduled to land at Tulihal airport on November 21, the day the Manipur Sangai Tourism Festival is set to kick start.

A special day to be set aside as Myanmar Day on November 23.

Chief Ministers of Myanmar's Saigang and Mandalay provinces expected to attend the festival on November 23.

Cultural troupes from Myanmar, Assam and Sikkim to participate in the festival for the first time.

Clearly the feel good factor is there and the State Government seems intent on living up to the billing of a 'Tourism' festival.

The emphasis on Myanmar clearly falls in line with India's Look East Policy and why shouldn't it be ? Showcase Manipur to the immediate neighbour and perhaps there is no better platform than the Sangai Tourism Festival.

However this is just the beginning and there are still a lot of spade works to be done.

Officials and cultural troupes visiting or gracing a festival should not and cannot be equated with the universal understanding of attracting tourists.

It is the same with international flights.

International flights being put into operation to ferry officials and cultural troupes for a specific festival cannot and should not be equated with the idea of tourists flowing in.

This is a reminder to the Government not to get lost or be caught up with the euphoria generated so far.

For the State level Sangai Festival to truly live up to billing of a tourism festival, it should be able to generate interest amongst the common folks, the holiday makers who want a taste of Manipur.

The tourists need not necessarily be foreigners but also domestic tourists, from other States of the country.

The statistics are not with us and it is not certain whether the Government or more specifically the Tourism Department has the figure of tourists attending the Sangai Festival in the last few years.

Perhaps the Department concerned could give an insight on this and it would certainly go a long way in gauging the progress the festival has made down the years.

A lesson also seems to have been learnt from the 2011 tragedy, wherein a cart puller was blown apart just outside the festival venue, if the proposal to instal Close Circuit Television cameras for round the clock monitoring of the festival venue is anything to go by.

There are other issues which the Government would need to work on, if it is live up to the interest and hype generated so far.

The past should be more than enough indication of how traffic management or mismanagement had robbed the sheen of the festival.

It is here that a serious study on the flow of traffic needs to be studied minutely.

A festival throwing normal life or normal movement of the people into jeopardy would certainly not go down well with the spirit of the festival.

For the VVIPs traffic will not be a problem, this is a given, but time to think about the people, without whose participation the festival will not be a success.

This is where the organisers and the related Government Departments need to reach out to the public and sensitise them on the need to be responsible drivers, not only when driving but also when parking.

Penalties in the form of fines may be imposed on recalcitrant motorists.

This should be reciprocated by a people friendly police force.

Barking out orders to fall in line may not be what the doctors would prescribe, for it is in the nature of all Manipuris to defy rude and crude approaches.

Time is still on the side of the Government and it is this time which should be utilised to polish the rough edges and make the festival meaningful and present Manipur to the foreign dignitaries in the best way possible.

For starters, the Government should start getting its act together and start clearing the garbage that are piling up in the commercial centres of Imphal.

A festival venue is not the only place to present Manipur to the outside world but the whole place, particularly its capital.