Making Imphal a dumping site Littering public spaces
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Taking it one or two steps higher. This is the line that comes to mind when one sees wastes, plastic bottles, wastes peppered with spit out betel juice being piled up on the footbridges set up to ease movement of people and enable them to cross from one side of the road to the other without disrupting the free flow of traffic. The mindset sucks. And even as litter being piled up on the footbridges made it to the front page of The Sangai Express there is no indication that the sky would clear up anytime soon, banging home the message that localised floods could be just around the corner. If any lesson had been learnt from the past, then it should have dawned on the consciousness of the people that littering, filling all available open space with wastes and more wastes, went a long way in stopping or slowing down the free flow of water, leading to localised flooding. And Manipur or rather Imphal has seen this quite often in 2023, 2024 and more recently in 2025. Any open space is today reduced to the status of a dumping ground and looking at the reality around, it is more than indicative that people are just not ready to learn. The reality is stark, very stark and there is a reason why some video footages of a car or any other four wheeler being used to carry domestic wastes and then dumping the same in a public space, more particularly in the commercial or keithel areas of Imphal, have been doing the round on the social media. To the average Manipuri man and woman, hygiene or maintaining cleanliness, starts and stops at one’s courtyard and the leikai roads and leiraks and khongbans are natural dumping grounds. It is this mindset that comes out in all its ugliness on the roads and lanes of Imphal on any given day. The refusal to look beyond one’s immediate needs is what has come to define Imphal for ages and this is something seen loud and clear at the manner in which honks are used indiscriminately to give one the right of way, never mind even if the vehicle just in front has stopped as the red signal has come on at the traffic point ! It is this mindset which is clearly visible in the manner in which honks are used indiscriminately in the dead of the night and drivers have refused to learn that there is something called the dipper while driving in the night. Again it is this mindset which is visible when one sees over crowded school vans speeding around and overtaking the rest on a busy road. It is this very mindset which blinds people to the fact that the bonfire they lit in the middle of the road is to a great extent responsible for the numerous potholes which have today come to adorn all the major roads in Imphal.
It is obvious that people will not learn and it is amid this all round decay, the decay of the mindset, that sections of the great Meitei society keep harping back on the glorious history of the land and people. Nothing could be more ironic than this. Talk about the great past of the people and the land and at the same time don’t hesitate to dump domestic wastes in places which come within the understanding of public spaces. It is under this mindset that today one sees the footbridge turned into some sort of a dumping ground, with people coming out and dumping plastic wastes and spitting betel juice all over. Something has to give, for Manipur cannot afford to continue living like this. The Government and any of its agencies may be given the authority to impose hefty fines on anyone found littering public places. The mentality of the people also comes out in all its ugliness when one takes a look at the overturned waste bins put in place at many points and at the leikais and leiraks. Why is it that there are certain elements who prefer to dump their wastes or throw things just beside the wastes bin ? It is this refusal to look beyond one’s immediate needs that is responsible for the dirt and filth seen all over Imphal today. Turning Imphal into one big dumping ground and this is what the people of this place have managed to do and the biggest tragedy is, there just does not seem to be any way to penalise these elements. This is time for the Govt to crack the whip.
It is obvious that people will not learn and it is amid this all round decay, the decay of the mindset, that sections of the great Meitei society keep harping back on the glorious history of the land and people. Nothing could be more ironic than this. Talk about the great past of the people and the land and at the same time don’t hesitate to dump domestic wastes in places which come within the understanding of public spaces. It is under this mindset that today one sees the footbridge turned into some sort of a dumping ground, with people coming out and dumping plastic wastes and spitting betel juice all over. Something has to give, for Manipur cannot afford to continue living like this. The Government and any of its agencies may be given the authority to impose hefty fines on anyone found littering public places. The mentality of the people also comes out in all its ugliness when one takes a look at the overturned waste bins put in place at many points and at the leikais and leiraks. Why is it that there are certain elements who prefer to dump their wastes or throw things just beside the wastes bin ? It is this refusal to look beyond one’s immediate needs that is responsible for the dirt and filth seen all over Imphal today. Turning Imphal into one big dumping ground and this is what the people of this place have managed to do and the biggest tragedy is, there just does not seem to be any way to penalise these elements. This is time for the Govt to crack the whip.