Cocktail of inefficiency and indifference
Time to crack the whip on National Highways
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 30, 2012 -

The scene of deplorable condition of National Highway 37 (NH-37) Imphal - Jiribam Road

Inefficiency and indifference can make a lethal cocktail.

This is what the Border Roads Organisation seem bent on proving on the two National Highways that connect Manipur with the rest of the world.

Even as it is hopelessly caught on the wrong foot along the Imphal-Jiribam stretch of National Highway 37, came the report that the BRO deemed it wiser to skip the BMW part while repairing the Mao to Maram stretch of National Highway 2.

When failure becomes a constant, in this case the repeated failure to take the Imphal-Jiribam stretch to the status of a National Highway coupled with the inept handling of some crucial parts of NH-2, then a design emerges.

The Transporters' and Drivers' Council has already gone on record to demand that the BRO be divested of all works related to National Highways and while the frustration and anger of the Council may be taken with a pinch of salt, a significant point has already been underlined.

Not so long back, Minister of State for Defence Palam Raju assessed the progress of the work along NH-37 and while the report card was good, this has not translated into anything concrete at the ground.

A telling statement on the high profile visits by political leaders from New Delhi.

And as things stand today, there is nothing to suggest that NH-37 would be ready to meet the needs of the people and the place by 2013, the deadline given by the Prime Minister during a public meeting in December last year.

The Imphal-Jiribam stretch of NH-37 caught the imagination of the public during the 52 days economic blockade imposed by the All Naga Students' Association, Manipur in 2005.

It was not for nothing that the then Governor, Dr SS Sidhu went by road to assess the progress of the work taken up along this stretch.

Again this route came to the limelight in 2010 when the United Naga Council imposed the more than 60 days economic blockade and again during 2011 which witnessed more than 100 days of blockade.

Not wrongly will it be said that the BRO has wittingly or unwittingly given a cutting edge understanding to surviving with all lifelines cut off.

Something, somewhere just does not seem to be going right.

It cannot be merely a question of the tough topography of NH-37 or even inefficiency.

It has something to do with the utter failure to realise how developing the National Highways would go a long way in ensuring that the dignity of the people are not violated or trampled upon.

Perhaps, it is time for the State Government to crack the whip and seriously at that.

Time to pull out all stops and exert the needed pressure on Delhi to get the BRO moving.

No agency should be allowed to play truant with an issue as sensitive as the routes that feed a people.