Indifferent Govt and a selfish public Scripting urban disaster
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Manipur will never learn and has always been about to see, rant and raise one’s hand in exasperation. The only thing missing is some hard, sincere inward look. An incompetent, fumbling Government whose only ‘claim to fame’ is letting its high and mighty ones flex their muscles in the middle of the road, overtake from the left with horn blazing, expect everyone to give them the right of way, shoo away others in the middle of a busy road with waving hands and cock a snook at anything that comes with the understanding of observing traffic rules and regulations. This is the most visible face of the Government which one can see anyday, anytime on the roads of Imphal while the commoners will have to learn how to negotiate through the numerous potholes which have come to decorate all the major roads in Imphal today. So while the suited, booted, uniformed bosses from the Government continue to throw their weight around, the people will have to make do with frequent power cuts, irregular water supply, the dirt and filth and the piling garbage at all the commercial areas of Imphal. Come the rain and the time is just right for the combination of an ineffective, pompous Government and a public who refuse to look beyond their immediate needs and convenience to come out in all its ugliness. Cut to the present, and the sky opened up in all its glory battering Imphal with non-stop rain from the evening July 27 and this morphed into heavy downpour in short spells the next day, July 28. The result is there for all to see. Flooded roads and in some localities entering houses and running over everything inside the house. A clear case of a Government having failed to work out anything called urban planning to cope with the growing population and a public more than eager to occupy any space that comes with the understanding of public land and the result is there for all to see in the flooded roads and the refusal of the water to flow away. Imphal was not like this. Natural waterways called khongbans in the local parlance are today practically non-existent with people more than ready to encroach and dump whatever they want in the little space reserved for the khongban. A disturbing reminder that the people are just not ready to listen or learn from the past. Manipur has seen floods in quick succession in 2023, 2024 and this year too and if the rain does not stop, Imphal is likely to witness a second spell of flood since the last week of May/first week of June this year. The flood in May/June this year is also a testimony of the fact that nothing has been learnt from the floods of 2023 and 2024. And there is nothing to show that the Government has worked out some modalities on how to cope with the increasing cases of flood, whenever the sky opens up. The truth is, it is not so much the volume of rain that is responsible, but a case of the water getting logged and trapped in areas which lie a little lower than the others in Imphal.
And how will water flow out in the face of the non-existent khongbans, the clogged nullahs thanks to plastic pollution, the failure of the Government to work out anything that comes close to the understanding of urban planning ? Manipur obviously cannot afford to continue living like this. Time for the Government to do something meaningful and perhaps the first step to take up should be to ensure that there is some sort of a co-ordination amongst the different departments. Makes absolutely no sense to see a freshly laid road being dug up to lay some pipes for the Imphal Sewerage Project, a project which has been going on for decades, and leave the dug out portion as it is. Quoting just an example that comes to mind and such an approach to a work exposes the mindset of the Government, a mindset which says ‘Nawa Loude’ to the public. The public on its part too should understand that they need to shed their selfish attitude towards everything in life and acknowledge that littering public places with their domestic wastes, including plastics, do nothing but inconvenience everyone. The water logged streets and roads of Imphal should be the right time for everyone to sit back, take a deep breath and correct their ways. An indifferent, incompetent Government and a selfish public have come together to script the urban disaster that is Imphal today and this is certainly not what is needed. A little thought for the others will go a long way in making Imphal liveable.
And how will water flow out in the face of the non-existent khongbans, the clogged nullahs thanks to plastic pollution, the failure of the Government to work out anything that comes close to the understanding of urban planning ? Manipur obviously cannot afford to continue living like this. Time for the Government to do something meaningful and perhaps the first step to take up should be to ensure that there is some sort of a co-ordination amongst the different departments. Makes absolutely no sense to see a freshly laid road being dug up to lay some pipes for the Imphal Sewerage Project, a project which has been going on for decades, and leave the dug out portion as it is. Quoting just an example that comes to mind and such an approach to a work exposes the mindset of the Government, a mindset which says ‘Nawa Loude’ to the public. The public on its part too should understand that they need to shed their selfish attitude towards everything in life and acknowledge that littering public places with their domestic wastes, including plastics, do nothing but inconvenience everyone. The water logged streets and roads of Imphal should be the right time for everyone to sit back, take a deep breath and correct their ways. An indifferent, incompetent Government and a selfish public have come together to script the urban disaster that is Imphal today and this is certainly not what is needed. A little thought for the others will go a long way in making Imphal liveable.