It would have to be with mix feelings all who care for the welfare of Manipur are watching the hectic development work being undertaken in Imphal East ahead of the Sangai Festival, an annual gala with the stated objective of showcasing Manipur before the world. Expectedly, the tourism department is made a key player in this event. Barely a fortnight left to the grand event, various approach roads to the festival venue, the Palace Compound, on a war footing roads are being widened, drains are being cleaned, potholes filled, and some roads which have at best seen only patchy bitumen paving thus far, such as the Thumbuthong Road, are being majorly renovated. Ironically, all these have become necessary on account of the government’s inability to complete the construction of the new Sanjenthong Bridge ahead of the festival, severing off the major link road between Imphal West and Imphal East across Imphal River. Had the Sanjenthong Bridge construction been over by the deadline the government set for itself, perhaps the other roads most likely would have remained condemned as the unpaved, old, dusty, potholed roads they always have been. In a way then, the delay in the completion of the Sangjenthong Bridge is a blessing from the point of view of those who would benefit from these arterial roads for months and years after this year’s Sangai Festival has concluded. Who says there is no wisdom in the saying “every dark cloud has a silver lining”.
However, if this is the brighter side of this episode, this same story has other implications which can hardly be said to be positive. Indeed, they may be cause for grave concerns, and ones that tell of a malaise in the governance of the land which has become endemic, but few or nobody has ever tried to address seriously. The foremost of these is loudly apparent in the current hectic facelift of the areas around the Sangai Festival venue. It tells of a story how governance, and indeed policy visions of the government in Manipur, has largely been characterised by an episodic, knee-jerk approach. The road improvement works which are being undertaken currently were very much the need of the people always, festival or no festival. Seen from the other end of the telescope, these works were also always the duty of the government to fulfil. Why then did it have to be the curious coincidence of the incompletion of Sanjenthong Bridge and the Sangai Festival which shook the government awake to do what it should have done as part of its bounden responsibility without any prompting? The truth is, this ad hoc approach to policy vision, is a known pattern of governance rather than action forces by any unseen emergency. If it is not the Sangai Festival, such development works have been executed from time to time to impress important visiting Central leaders.
The other consequence of these episodic rushes of development works is, they are done in such haste and understandably it would be quality of the work which suffers. As it is, because of the culture of daylight robbery perpetrated by the obnoxious contract culture which has become a collaborative robbery of the state exchequer by an unholy nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and contractors, development work has always been of poor quality. But now with the further excuse of very short deadlines, you can almost bet that these roads being made now would last at best a few months. What a waste! What has been, has been, but the question is, should not the government begin thinking long term at least from now. In the absurd theatre that Manipur has become, this probably is too much to expect.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam