Sewerage Project Imphal's sorrow : Cocktail of inflated egos and apathy
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 10, 2012 -

The dug out portion of the road to the south of Raj Bhavan :: Pix - TSE

Lack of expertise, indifference and an inflated ego can make a lethal cocktail.

This obviously is the case with the Imphal Sewerage Project, which was taken up amid much hype and gusto with the foundation stone laid in 2001 by the then Governor Ved Marwah.

Actual work at the ground started a few years later and in a period spanning 8 or 9 years, this project has come to underline the understanding of throwing people into a cesspool of woes and inconveniences.

Dig, cover up, black top and then again dig, all at the same spot, is what the Imphal Sewerage Project has been reduced to and there is nothing to gloss over this.

The sting in the term ‘lack of co-ordination amongst the different arms of the Government’ has lost its potency, if not for anything, then for its sheer over dose here.

A trend it has become for projects to overshoot the deadlines numerous times and apart from the multiplying effects on the cost and the inconveniences of the people, it is also reflective of how the Government and its different agencies work.

A case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Common sense obviously is the most uncommon sense amongst the suited, booted Babudom and their political masters.

A project as big and as ambitious as the Imphal Sewerage Project calls for a close co-ordination amongst the different agencies of the Government and this include not only the Engineering Departments but also others.

Digging up portions of roads on a busy route calls for a close co-ordination between the work agency concerned and other departments such as the Transport Department and the Traffic police. Not rocket science technology but just that teeny weeny bit of applying one's mind to the work at hand.

A case of lack of expertise, indifference and inflated egos clouding the judgement of the officials and departments concerned. January next year is the month given to fill up the dug out portion to the south of Raj Bhavan.

High water level is the case cited for the failure to complete the process of pipe laying and filling up the dug out portion on this extremely busy route and the inept handling of the project cannot get clearer than this.

An irony it is that a project which was taken up to address the question of the sewage system in Imphal has literally turned huge swathes of land at places like Lamphel into an open sewage.

Engineers from the Public Health Engineering Department were indeed sent to France to receive technical knowledge concerning the said project but there is nothing to show that anything substantive have been learnt.

Wasting public money, nothing less. A mega project necessarily calls for mega planning.

Perhaps it is the process known as awarding contract works, shortlisting suppliers and floating tenders that has blinded the Babudom and the political class to overlook the planning part. v Otherwise how does one explain the irritatingly long time it has taken for the project to see the light of the day and the severe inconveniences that the people have had to put up with all these years.

Development has a price tag, no doubt about it. But when the price is hiked due to the sheer apathy and indifference of the people concerned then it is time to call a spade a spade.