The new men on the block : Statement of intent
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 19, 2012 -

The 8 new ministers at the oath-taking ceremony on April 28 2012 at Raj Bhavan , Imphal :: pix - Bullu Raj

The energy and the enthusiasm is interesting and encouraging. It is also natural, we guess. After a long hiatus, Irengbam Hemochandra and M Okendra have returned as Ministers and the intensity of purpose, the energy and the enthusiasm they have demonstrated after making the cut of the 12 member Council of Ministers, is significant.

For Dr Kh Ratankumar, this is a first and he seems intent on making a mark on his debut, which is fine and noteworthy.

All three belong to political families, a legacy on which they have built upon their career with hits and misses in between and while the promises or assurances they have given to the people on assuming charge of their respective portfolios are interesting, it has also thrown open a number of questions that need serious deliberations.

While PHED Minister I Hemochandra's assurance that he would leave no stone unturned to improve the water supply scenario in the next couple of months is welcome, this means that there are areas which could have been worked upon earlier or else no one would have had the confidence to predict a turn around for the better in a couple of months.

The question then is, what were the lapses in the last ten years of the Congress led SPF Government tenure ? The new man helming PHED at the moment would sound that much more convincing if he takes the trouble of pointing out the lapses that were there before he assumed office.

This will add more teeth to his assurance and lift it up a notch or two higher from the mundane assurances that the people have been fed with all these years. Ditto too for the new Education Minister, M Okendro.

Apart from acknowledging that the State's education system has failed abysmally, Okendra has been candid enough in stating that it would be an arduous task to streamline the entire system.

Acknowledging the lapses is the first step towards tackling a point and while the Education Minister has done this, there is the need to specifically spell out where the ills lie. This will not only help in confidence building measures but will also help the people keep a tab on the performance of the Minister.

Mr Ngamthang Haokip, the new man in charge of Irrigation and Flood Control Department has also been in the limelight, inspecting river banks and issuing the necessary instructions ahead of the rainy season.

All the measures taken up by the new faces in the Council of Ministers are encouraging and significant, but the point that there is a big slip between what is said and done on the ground is something which will not be lost on the people.

The personal interest shown by the new Ministers is also an indication of the measures that could have been taken up earlier, but were not for reasons best known to the Government.

If this is what stability in the last ten years is all about then the very meaning and essence of the term stability stands defeated.

As things stand today, the water supply scenario has not improved one bit in the last ten years. In fact it has been a case of going from bad to worse.

While road connectivity may have improved in some rural areas of Manipur, Imphal continues to be adorned by potholed roads. There is no system in the Education system at all, with several Centrally sponsored schemes taken up in connection with education going on to line the pockets of the people concerned.

The energy and the spontaneity demonstrated so far by some of the new Ministers will become more meaningful if they take the local MLAs concerned into confidence, cutting across party lines.

Not for nothing is it said that the wearer of the shoe knows where it pinches. In the last ten years of the Congress led SPF regime, the people have witnessed some Ministers demonstrating intent of purpose on assuming office only to be replaced by lethargy and arrogance as the years rolled on.

This is a valuable lesson for the new Ministers to learn from the past. This applies to the Chief Minister too, even as he has started demonstrating a keen interest in bettering the power scenario in the State.

Don't lose focus is our suggestion or else it will all boil down to a case of a bucket of cold water after a hot shower.