It may be just eight vehicles and the amount involved may be peanuts when compared to the bigger and more ‘lucrative’ scams that the State has seen but in cracking down on the auction of eight vehicles of Imphal Municipal Corporation, a message has been sent out.
And the message is undoubtedly the presence of an Opposition which knows how to make the right noise.
Credit for this should obviously go to the Congress led Opposition in the Imphal Municipal Corporation as well as MLA Th Joykisan of the Congress for bringing up the matter for discussion on the floor of the Assembly on the last day of the just concluded Budget session.
As things stand, the Municipal Commissioner of Imphal Municipal Corporation has written to the proprietor of M/S NRSR Automobiles, Yairipok Top Chingtha, Thoubal district that the eight vehicles sold to the firm, need to be recovered by August 8 as there is suspicion that some irregularities and fraudulence may have occurred in the process of the auction.
Prior to this the Opposition in the Imphal Municipal Corporation had alleged that the auction notice was sent to the local newspapers to be published as a news item and not as an advertisement which is not the followed procedure in issuing notices such as an auction.
That the State Government has taken due cognizance of the allegations raised can be summed up in the announcement of MAHUD Minister Th Shyamkumar that an inquiry has been ordered in the auction process of the eight vehicles, and herein lies the importance of a strong Opposition which is there to raise issues which are of importance to the public.
The proceeds of the eight vehicles may not amount to much, but the whip needs to be cracked against any misdemeanour committed by elected members of a local body.
The presence of a strong Opposition.
Ironic it is, but it is the Congress which has to put up the presence of a strong Opposition now, after having been in power for 15 years on the trot.
The absence of an effective Opposition was strongly felt especially after the 2012 Assembly election, when there was virtually no Opposition in the Assembly and the Congress could roll its way through without much opposition from any quarters on the floor of the Assembly.
Now the table has turned and it is up to the Congress to give credence to the understanding of the Opposition bench.
This is just the beginning for more than four years are still left for the current Assembly and how well the BJP led Government performs will go a good way in deciding how effective the Congress is as the Opposition.
A strong Opposition, this what the Parliamentary form of democracy demands and herein lies the point that a political party can still do so much for the people and the land, whether it is in power or out of it.
It is the refusal to accept this that the State has seen some MLAs elected as Congress candidates but joining the BJP side.
Nothing can be more nauseating than this and it would be in the fitness of things for the voters to teach them a lesson when by election is held anytime in the future.
Source: The Sangai Express
