Incompetent, lethargic Government : Living in a concrete jungle
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 11, 2014 -

Construction is still underway for Sanjenthong Bridge as on October 30 2014 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Concrete jungle. Imphal is this and more.

And nowhere is this more manifested than the nightmare of an experience that everyone has to face once they step out of their homes.

Just ten more days for the Sangai Festival to kick off but there is nothing to suggest that the repairing work of Sanjenthong is anywhere near completion.

Same is the case with the road widening work taken up from the airport to Keishampat.

Falling short of the earlier declaration that Sanjenthong will be ready before the Sangai Festival.

An indication that not enough homework was done before the Chief Minister delivered the public declaration.

The bigger tragedy is that there is nothing much to suggest that the State Government has learnt anything from this fiasco.

A bridge remaining incomplete for months and overshooting its scheduled date of completion should be seen as something more than the failure of the Government to keep to a time frame.

It reeks of incompetence and non-chalance.

That the Government has failed to read this should be evident from the daily traffic chaos that one encounters daily on the other roads and streets of Imphal.

Road congestion is not only the result of the number of vehicles multiplying but has much to do with shoddy handlings.

Couple this with an unthinking, selfish people and the traffic chaos and confusion that one sees daily should not come as too much of a surprise.

The failure of the Government to finish the repairing work of Sanjenthong should not come as a shock for this is the same Government which has slept over the City Convention Centre and the Inter-State Bus Terminus, projects which were inaugurated by none less than the then Prime Minister of the country and the Chairperson of the UPA Government before the election to the 10th Assembly.

Not that traffic was fine before Sanjenthong was taken apart. Not that vehicular movement was smooth on the airport to Keishampat crossing route earlier.

However it should be noted that things have taken a turn for the worse after the Government came up with its bright idea. Development was the mantra then.

Wonder what term the Government will use now to justify the prolonged delay. Motoring or moving from one place to another in Imphal can sure be a headache.

Adding to the nightmare posed by the incomplete work along the Keishampat to airport road and the incomplete Sanjenthong is the presence of a people who cannot think beyond their immediate selves.

The mindset ‘Me First’ is writ large on all the traffic chaos that one sees all over the place.

Lane jumping, honking away to glory, no rights given to pedestrians etc are all indications of throwing traffic rules and regulations to the wind.

Take the men in khakis or uniform who come honking all the way, expecting the people to give them the right of way and the inconvenience of the people is multiplied.

The trauma of living in Imphal in the 21st century is something which cannot be easily put to word or written down succinctly.