Living up to the three ‘golden’ rules Wrong but always right
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 27 , 2014 -

Rule number 1 : The boss is always right
Rule number 2 : If the boss is wrong ?
Rule number 3 : See Rule number I.

The boss, read Chief Minister O Ibobi was right when he decided that Tiddim road should be expanded without applying his mind on the trees planted along this stretch.

The result is there for all to see.

A number of trees have been axed or rather bull dozed by the huge machinery generally known as the JCBs along this stretch.

The picture carried on the front page of the English edition of The Sangai Express in the June 26 issue under the caption ‘Joint survey’, is the proof of the pudding.

Now as things have turned out, the boss seems to have been wrong in failing to exercise his mental faculty on the statuses of the trees, but as the three rules laid down above suggest, the boss seems to be right as the Public Works Department has started consulting with the Forest Department to conduct a joint survey on whether the trees growing along the said stretch should be uprooted and thrown away or transplanted at more suitable sites.

Whoever came out with these three rules must have some Nostradamic instinct for these are played right under our nose and eyes now.

After a number of trees have been felled in the demolition drive, the boss and his men seem to have come to their senses and hence the proposal for a joint survey to see whether the trees should be uprooted or relocated/replanted at some other places.

In the first place there were confusions galore on the question of which department should demarcate the land to be acquired for the road expansion exercise.

This is not The Sangai Express speaking but residents who said that at times officials from the Public Works Department would come to demarcate the land, at other times it would be officials from the Revenue Department and at other times it would be officials from the Settlement Department.

This more or less should be evidence enough that the Forest Department was never consulted when the State Government embarked on the grand idea of bull dozing their way through for the road expansion.

Now that a proposal has been floated for the PWD and the Forest Department to conduct a joint survey, it has lived up to Rule number 1 to Rule number 2 and Rule number 3 !

With Tulihal airport being upgraded to an international airport, with no international flights operating from this airport, as of now, maybe the boss was right in deciding that the road that leads to the airport should be expanded and buildings and homesteads should be demolished. That compensations were paid is another matter.

The pertinent question here is whether this exercise can be called developing Imphal city at all.

Wide roads are definitely needed, given the growing traffic volume in the last few years, but any development project should also promote capital and develop resources.

It is also against the global trend or norms to uproot trees for any development projects.

That no thoughts were given to this can be gauged from the belated idea of the Works Department and the Forest Department to conduct a joint survey and study whether the trees should be simply uprooted or whether it should be relocated.

It also stands true that while Tiddim road will be a swanky, wide road, as befits a route that takes one to an international airport, it will have an impact on the drains that run parallel along the lanes and by lanes to Tiddim road.

Has any thought been given to this ? Unlikely if the manner in which a large number of trees have already been uprooted is anything to go by.

A sure sign that the Government did not do its homework before it let loose its heavy machinery to dismantle the standing structures.

So far there is no sign that the drains along Tiddim road, that is from Keishampat to Malom, would be built and with the Monsoon already upon us, one can expect the roads being literally turned into rivers or rivulets whenever there is a heavy downpour.

The way the Government is going ahead with its many projects defies logic and rational thinking but lest it leaves one stupefied, refer to the three golden rules laid down at the opening sentence of this commentary.