With all the privileges they have, I strongly feel that all the elected legislators, excepting one or two, of the Manipur Assembly should undergo a compulsory (6X3) 18 hours workshop on budgetary process, what a budget is, what is its significance in India's political economy, etc. This should be a condition for all irrespective of whether one is a leader of Government or just a plain member.

Year after year, the budgetary process is increasingly becoming funnier, to say the least, while the State gets increasingly caught in social, political and economic ruptures. In order to stop this downhill slide and to make the legislators more responsive to societal needs the workshop has become an utmost necessity.

The Background: I understand that the plan size for the forthcoming fiscal had yet to be decided, though decided now. I also understand that in a budget based essentially on grants from the Centre the scope for manoeuvrability is very limited. But within these limitations nobody stops the State from articulating its own needs, issues and directions, and dovetailing all the efforts to these.

In a democratic set-up and given India's political structure, every intervention needing the budgetary support must pass the enlightened scrutiny of the legislature; there is hardly any intervention which does not require budgetary support.

In other words, the budget is the medium through which the government articulates its mind and indicates the direction in which it intends to carry the people along. This is all the more so if the leader of the government is the minister in charge of finances as well.

Starting April Fool 2007, we enter into a new Five Year Plan period with 2007-08 as the first year of this plan. Secondly, a new government has just been elected to power.

Thirdly, this new government is led by the same party and person. Fourth, the leader (Chief Minister) was the Finance Minister in the previous government and is the Finance Minister in the new one as well.

The Social Realities: Manipur now have so many critical issues crying for attention and redressal. We have the great conflict for redistribution, not a race for advancement, everywhere in the State (I have spelt out what is it about in my last input in this column).

In this conflict we now see non-inclusive ethnic based articulations and mobilisations everywhere in the State. Whether the state is aware of it and how it plans to give a direction to this should now be spelt out in clear terms, particularly given the background given above.

Secondly, we have the mountain-valley divide in development which the State has not yet articulated and no determined efforts made to address this. But this divide has already had a dangerously shattering effect on the society, polity and economy of the State. How the government applies its mind to this issue is what the people are eagerly looking for.

Thirdly, there has been a decline over the years in the institutional quality and performance of the various organs of the state. In this context, we have also seen a positive effort, like in education, by some private agents to ameliorate the situation as well as a very negative trend of increasing trespassing by non-state actors into purely state roles.

We definitely would like to see the state endeavouring to evolve a strategy in this area with a view to strengthen its institutional capability, capitalise on the strengths of the private agents and negate the undesirable aspects of private agents.

During his short tenure as DGP, the new incumbent seems to be trying to do his bit as evidenced by the Nagamapal seizure of three loaded trucks by the Traffic Police, protection of the house of an alleged criminal in Samurou, the quick arrest in Yairipok of a person who supposedly drew blood from a child, and the personal involvement in Senapati.

But this cannot be a solitary effort; while his efforts are supported, the reform efforts should be generalised to all the organs of the state in the State.

Above all, there are so many issues, currents and debates doing rounds in the State. It is the responsibility of the legislature to see to it that these get reflected in the proceedings of it so that they do not go haywire and serve cross-purposes.

A budget presented by the Chief Minister himself is the most opportune moment for articulating the mind of the state, acknowledge to the public the issues plaguing them, fire the imagination of the citizens, and give a direction to all to carry the debates forward in a positive way.

But What Happened: It was with these expectations that I was anxiously looking forward to the new budget, and read the Chief Minister's budget speech as soon as it appeared on the official website. Well, I found only story in the speech, and there is no reflection of the government having applied its mind on the socio-politico-economic issues of the State.

A budget is much more than just a document legalising the expenses incurred and to be incurred by the government. It is much more than a flow chart. What is important is legitimisation and adequate rationalisation of the flows. I understand that a budget which just confines itself to enabling the government to spend might facilitate favouritism, manipulation and percentagisation, but this is not what Manipur needs now.

All Not Lost: Well all is not lost. The people of the State can still ask the leader of the government to come out with a clear mind on how the various issues are being addressed through the expenses being and to be incurred.

We know the State does not have a strong resource base. So we want every penny to be accountable and responsive to the critical problems of the State. We want that at least a single problem should be satisfactorily addressed each time.

Now the people have to watch how the debate on the budget gets under way in the assembly after the recess.