Alertness: The missing element
- in the development administration of the State -

Amar Yumnam *

Development and particularly the advancement of it is not a joke. As the world knows and as I have been emphasizing repeatedly in this column, development never occurs in a vacuum. It continually calls for a sustained alertness on the scopes for advancement and opportunities for developmental direction.

Now this alertness and rapidity in responding to the opportunities are something to be cultivated by the government. What is a government for otherwise!! The necessity of this cultivation is all the more in regions like Manipur where development somehow has not been experienced.

The Drawback: The drawback of countries like India is the administrative slowness in responding to the opportunities and articulating the appropriate developmental interventions. The contrast with China in this respect is very sharp.

In China’s recent emergence as a very strong economic power, one characteristic which the world appreciates is her alertness in responding to economic opportunities and quickness in executing development interventions.

The latest example being given is the completion of commissioning, designing, and building of the Beijing Capital International Airport in less than four years or in other words in a period less than the time taken in public hearing of Terminal 5 of London’s Heathrow Airport.

While the latest severe earthquake has earned laurels for the country for her wonderful management of post-calamity responses, India now finds herself in a position to devise appropriate responses to the highest inflation rate in the last thirteen years.

While appreciating the general drawback of India, the rather worse case is the problem of the lack of alertness in a more acute and chronic way in Manipur. The administration of Manipur has not yet shown any semblance of willingness to respond to development opportunities, what to talk of responding to the scope for developmental administration.

Developmental Opportunities: Any place anywhere in the world is blessed with opportunities for developmental intervention at one time or another. It is the exploitation of this opportune moment or otherwise that marks a successful country from a non-successful one.

Similarly, it is not that Manipur or any of her parts has never been characterised by opportune moments for developmental intervention. The latest example I have in mind is the case of discovery of a wonder drug in Churachandpur.

What is the Economic Phenomenon: What I see in the Churachandpur case is the economic phenomenon accompanying the demand for the drug and not the drug as such. The economic phenomenon happening right now is transfer of income from the rest of Manipur towards Churachandpur.

The process of this transfer of income can be profitably organised for both social and economic transformation of the places around Saikot.

First, the district happens to be one which has been known outside for wrong reasons. The recent rush of population and income to the side could be used for reducing the menace of addiction in the area.

This definitely would help in giving a new social direction to the people there. But quite contrary to this, we hear of tablets and syringes being conspicuous. If this report is true, nothing can be more unfortunate.

Secondly, the inflow of income to the area could be utilised for improving the infrastructure of the area. There is a very strong public goods aspect in the activities after the discovery of the wonder drug.

A proper pricing and revenue sharing could have been evolved to enhance the developmental impact of the public good, and generalise the benefits. While the efforts of some individuals to capitalise on the phenomenon are appreciated, the benefits definitely could be more generalised.

Thirdly, the temporal flow of people and income into the land could be used as a springboard for developing the surrounding areas as places for tourists on a more permanent basis. This would make it possible the sustenance of the temporal economic impact for a longer term transformation of the area.

The Likely Outcome: In the absence of the above interventions, what we are going to witness is the reverse flow of the income now being injected into Churachandpur away from there sooner than later and as soon as the present rush declines. This would have a very disastrous effect on the future of the area. Well nobody would aspire for this kind of outcome.

The Finale: We all wish prosperity brought about by development. But the underlying reality is that this can result only from a situation where the administration is alive to the opportunities for developmental intervention and rightly utilises them.

This is what Manipur badly needs. To begin with, we should not be wasting the present Churachandpur opportunity.