By RS Jassal
As evidenced from Part I, Chingmeirong specially Sangkapham remains a security concern for the State. So let us get serious on security aspects Chingmeirong. It is known, this area is a mini Manipur not devoid of even a single community/tribe inhabiting it who can be found in all corners of Manipur. Prior to opening police outpost there was Municipal (Octoroi) Post, now this out post stands upgraded to Police Station declared by the current SPA Government. There are important schools and institutes like Don Bosco, DAV Public School, St. Anthony’s High School, Govt. Primary and Middle Class School, Kiddies Corner, D’Regina English High School & so on. Some important business oriented establishments like Maruti Eastern Motors Workshop , Show room, Arun Enterprise big godowns are there all having protuberance potentials. Coming up State Assembly Complex, State High Court Complex, Autonomous District Council , IIT Complex and IOC Oil Dumps all add to the future addition of traffic. Curiously enough, Manipur Govt. has thought of keeping width of road (NH) from Khongang- ani-Karak to Sangakpam the most narrow a stretch as compared to entire Koirengei to Thoubal road passing through Singjamei. By any counts it should have been wider or al least if not at par with general width of the road. ISBT (under construction) close by also dictates that width deserves to be kept more. This above has been depicted that flow of men, women, children and vehicular traffic will always remain so, with ever increase in volume and speed.
Under the present & the same CM, the then Chief Secretary Shri Jarnail Singh, the then speaker of LA Shri Haokip and two Engineers conducted detailed study of linking Police Station from NH to Capitol Project on one side and High Court on the other through our two houses (Myself, Edmund, Ranjit- and Dharam Chand Jain) with sufficiently wide road to link up with Central Agriculture University through Thangmeiband (North), Tarung Kabui area. It was immensely a good security plan. The areas to be cut were properly marked and owners no objection was also taken . Imagine incident of Aug One blast, how fast the Police could have covered all the northern exit routes in hot pursuit or blocking on red alert. But scheme is abandoned or otherwise is not known. Most of the locals interacted with me being a free lance writer & they asked, “ Col Sahib do you think VDF with sticks in hand are fit to be employed on policing duties instead of MR / IRB?” I definitely feel and incline to agree with them in ‘NO’. However VDF are a vast source of intelligence gathering pool available to the state than loitering in two(s) & three(s) with duties to simply gaze at the passers by. So Govt. may do some thinking on it. For public participation in police duty, some influential persons of (either gender) be identified with whom VDF can have easy access & our intelligence deficit can be made up on priority basis. With a compact State like ours it is not an impossible task. Even the killing of IGP Vanthuam Paite, IPS has not left any message for the State cops. Every time a thing of this nature happens, reports appear in media ‘investigation launched’ , ‘incident condemned’ & ‘no recurrence will be tolerated’ . That is end of it. Everyone was concerned & keen to know what happened to Wungnaosung’s ambush. At Ukhrul (Lamphu village) one couple was shot dead and crime admitted by NSCN(IM) but no report & action from the Govt. side made public so far.
Along with the developmental activities, security placing need equal consideration. IRB units need given their proper places in hill districts i.e., purpose for which they were raised. Security road as planned by the Govt. should have been aligned long back needs now doing on priority . VDF engagements be reviewed at the earliest under respective Districts. Same strength can be adjusted against DIB i.e., District Intelligence Bureau as Mizoram and Nagaland are doing. It needs noting terrorist activity is not helping any body or group; it’s a wild goose chase, dividing the homogeneity of ethnicity just self pleasing to the terrorist leaders in their own realms.
