TSE brings My City to you...Read on and spare a thought
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 11 2009: As part of our continuing effort to involve our readers in issues which directly affect their day to day life, starting January 12, 2009, we start a new feature My City, My Life, which we will try to make it a weekly feature.

The new venture has been taken up in the backdrop of the pledges given by the Chief Minister that a new Imphal is what the Government is working towards and many of the ongoing projects in the heart of the capital testify this.

Road widening exercise taken up at the Yaiskul range as part of New Imphal

My City, My Life will cover many aspects of urban life that has a direct bearing on the day to day existence of the common people, the conditions of the roads and bridges, water and power supply, police-public relationships etc.

In our first venture we will make a general observation of some of the projects which were taken amid much fanfare and hype with definite deadlines for their completion but which have been intermittently delayed due to various reasons.

The SPF Government under the Chief Minister managed to dismantle the historic Khwairamband bazar along with two others to make way for swanky, state of the art new buildings.

While the construction of two new market sheds are nearing completion, the other one is yet to see any progress worth talking about.

The same story goes too in the case of the Capitol complex.

Nobody seems to know at what stage the construction work of the Capitol project is at the moment.

Land acquisition and demolition work for widening the road stretch from Moirangkhom to Singjamei along NH-39 parking has been finalised, but the construction of the road is yet to take off.

Despite the tall talk of the Chief Minister and his colleagues that a new Imphal would be ushered in, there is nothing to suggest that anything concrete has been taken up to realise the City Convention Centre at Palace Gate for which a huge plot of land was acquired and many buildings and shops demolished.

In fact so hopelessly out of time is Imphal that a meeting of the NEC which was to be held here last year had to be ultimately shifted to New Delhi as there was fit place to accommodate the officials as well as no proper place to hold the meeting.

On the other hand the Government has also started the process of widening the road at the Yaiskul range.

Under the campaign to promote greenery in Imphal, a number of flowering trees were planted on the median along NH-39, in front of Raj Bhavan, on the road leading to the CM's residence, the Secretariat and Tiddim road.

However there is nothing to suggest that maintenance work has been taken up.

For instance, which department has been entrusted with the task of watering these plants ? YAS Minister N Biren during his earlier avatar as the MoS of Forest and Environment had installed dust bins at strategic points to help keep Imphal clean, but today no one knows what has happened to the dust bins.