Atrociously ugly face of local heroes : Ukhrul brutality
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 06 2020 -

Self appointed leikai heroes and heroines. Only that in this case the term leikai may sound a bit odd and Tang (As in Rayotang, Awungtang etc) will be more apt here.

Manipur saw the emergence of numerous leikai heroes and heroines when the first COVID-19 case was detected in the person of a young girl who had returned from England on March 24.

Back then and for many days after that, it was a common sight to see these leikai heroes and heroines coming out on the road and imposing their own version of local lockdowns.

Obviously the leikai lockdown did not stop the virus from spreading and so from one singular case at the fag end of March, Manipur now has 11,855 cases.

Add the 75 persons who have died due to the contagion and here is a perfect example of how the numerous road blocks, the leikai lockdowns and the immense inconvenience caused to the people fell flat on its face to control the spread of the virus, as evidenced by the 11,855 positive cases.

If this was how Imphal responded when the virus first landed here, some Tang heroes in Ukhrul have taken it a notch or two higher in brutally assaulting a young student who rightfully questioned why a sum of Rs 50 had to be charged for taking a Travel Pass to go to Imphal and appear for the Preliminary examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission on October 4.

The said youth was beaten black and blue and readers must have seen the photo of the blood curdling bruises on the young man’s body, which accompanied the story carried by The Sangai Express on October 5.

Just how did the local body of a Tang come under the impression that a Travel Pass, that too for a sum of Rs 50 had to be obtained to go out of station for appearing in a highly competitive examination ?

The high handedness of the so called local authority cannot be digested.

To a student a sum of Rs 50 is a huge amount and to think that this is the amount demanded of him to appear in a competitive examination defies simple logic.

Or if the local authority is under the impression that Rs 50 is pittance (nominal amount) and will not break anyone, try telling them to go and earn it with their work.

Moreover who authorised the local authority to collect fees from others to move outside the place ?

Chaos - this is what such self appointed guardians of a locality are scripting. This should not be tolerated at any cost.

Time for the CSOs of Ukhrul to come together and penalise those who did not think twice about brutally assaulting a young student, all over a Travel Pass.

Comical it sounds that a local based organisation should deem it fit to collect money from others in the name of Travel Pass.

That such a pass has not worked in keeping the virus that causes COVID-19 at bay must be clear from the number of nearly 500 positive cases detected at Ukhrul.

Good to see that Ukhrul police has acted swiftly and hauled up some of the leaders of the so called local authority. Penalise them heavily.

Let it be known that no one can go scot free after subjecting someone to such a barbaric assault.

Granted Imphal has not seen such barbarity but it could due to the fact that those who had to turn back because the leikai heroes and heroines had blocked the road did not go into a debate or argument with them.

Bottomline is, the mentality that anyone can assume the role of policemen, judge and executioner cannot be accepted.