IMPHAL, February 22: One can only guess from the Governor’s Address on the opening day of the 13th session of the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly that the State government has done nothing for the people in the past years, observed Oinam MLA Dr I Ibohalbi today during the discussion on the address.
The Address was incomplete from every angle, he said.
The Address might have been the shortest Governor’s Address ever heard in the Assemblies of all the Indian States, he observed.
The speech failed to give any detail of the activities of the government already undertaken or the one which will be taken up in the future, he said.
Unfortunately, the Address also failed to even mention the recent January 4 earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale, which left nine people dead and more than a 100 injured, he observed.
It was reported that the Chief Secretary has released financial assistance for those killed in the earthquake, however, the people are yet to see it in action, he observed.
In his Address, the Governor has also omitted details of food grain production in the State in recent years and how much quantity has been kept for the future, he said.
Considering the Address, we can also observe that there is also no future plan of the government to provide safe drinking water to the people, he said adding that Manipur is in such a state when, even in the rural areas, people are buying water from private carriers.
People have to spend money to get water instead of spending the same in the education of their children, he added.
Though the Bills for Conservation of Wetland and Agricultural Land was passed in the last Assembly session, the government has not initiated any step to implement it in the State, he continued.
He said Manipur once had more than a hundred lakes or wetlands, but today there are hardly 10.
Although, the government is working hard to clean the Loktak Lake, the polluted water of the rivers have only polluted the bed of the lake, he said observing that the government has failed to highlight the maintenance of river beds.
Manipur is facing acute shortage of water, private water takers can be seen everywhere and people are spending more money in buying drinking water, but the Governor’s Address failed to mention the issue, Ibohalbi pointed out.
It is also unfortunate that although Rs 79 crore was allocated in the budget last year in the tourism sector, this year it is only Rs 27 crores, he said.
He continued the Governor’s Address should have also mentioned the gold medallists from the State in the recent South Asian Games held in Guwahati and Shillong and if the government is at all concern with the future of the sports-players.