Need to look beyond ‘No parking’ sign Growing traffic menace

The traffic menace is getting worse day by day and the Government needs to wake up to the reality and look beyond the ‘No parking zone.’ One may tell the motorists not to park their vehicle at a particular spot and the Government has the means to pull up anyone who violate this one line order, but can this one line directive be synonymous with traffic management ? And more aptly, is this one line directive applicable to all citizens equally ? A look at the reality will tell its own unalloyed story. Something has to give. Manipur definitely cannot go on like this for the fact is, the number of vehicles on the road will only increase with each passing year not to speak of the growing population. With banks more than willing to offer loans to anyone to purchase cars, motor cycles, scooters, scooty, mopeds etc the number of vehicles on the road will keep on increasing and the roads, particularly the leikai roads, the roads which connect one leirak to another to come out to the main road, will only get narrower, thanks to the penchant of the people to slowly and surely expand their homestead and in the process make the leikai khongbans and nullahs narrower and narrower. Making things worse are the vehicles parked overnight and during day time at most of the leikai roads and today it is not uncommon to see even the leikai roads and leiraks coming under localised traffic jams. In such instances the localised traffic jams can take long, very long to clear up for in most cases, it is all about each man to himself with everyone trying to go ahead, never mind the vehicles coming from the opposite direction. Changing the mindset of the people is certainly not the responsibility of the Government but something needs to be done and perhaps the Government may seriously study the possibility of introducing a subject on traffic and responsible driving, say till the Class IX stage or even beyond. The need of the time is clear. A two way model may be adopted to deal with the growing traffic menace on the roads of Imphal. First is obviously for the Government to seriously study and accordingly work out the remedy on why majority of the people head for Paona Keithel, Thangal Keithel, BT Road, MG Avenue and the adjoining areas and the second should be to take up steps to make the people traffic literate. A traffic illiterate people and a Government which refuses to look beyond putting up the ‘No parking’ sign can be the ingredients to whip up the perfect cocktail responsible for the traffic confusion and chaos on the roads of Imphal everyday.
Not all roads can be broadened to accommodate the growing number of vehicles on the road and obviously going aerial via flyovers is one answer to tackle this. Here again the Government would need funds to build the second flyover in Imphal and this is where one has to acknowledge that Imphal still has miles to catch up with other capitals. Given this reality, the people will have to cope with the existing scenario, but everyone can chip in to minimise the hazards of daily traffic congestion. It was not so long back that a video shot of a car parked non-chalantly plumb in the middle of a busy road in Imphal with the driver nowhere in sight went viral on the social media. That particular incident was captured live on camera yet at the same time there must be several similar cases which have gone unnoticed, but which nonetheless severely inconvenienced so many others on the road. It is this mindset which needs to be overhauled and this is where the responsibility of parents, elders and guardians of every family becomes important. Teach the young child to respect fellow beings out on the road and such a child will think more than twice while taking the wheel when he or she comes of age. The Government too must look to spread out Imphal and look beyond the ‘No  parking zone’ line which are put up at many points across Imphal.