IVR or Inter-Village Road. Imphal is choc-a-bloc with them.
For two days, The Sangai Express has been publishing news on the death traps that lie plum in the middle of the road in Imphal, not in some far flung village or the hills.
And the campaign will continue.
The BJP led Government may have come to power just six months back and the need to keep them posted on the way in which people are forced to live daily cannot be forgotten and as a newspaper here not only to disseminate daily information to the people, it is right that the Government too is kept on its toes.
Everyone knows of the LPG campaign that was taken up and is still continuing but we will not rest content with that.
Roads, water supply, health care, these are some of the fundamentals of life and these areas will be covered and highlighted occasionally.
Fruitful is the word that comes to mind when one takes into consideration the fact that after The Sangai Express ran a story on how the market place in front of Shanker Talkies at Lamphel has been turned into a dumping ground, the same has been cleaned up today.
This is a good sign and an indication that the authority concerned or the Government wakes up only when there is bad publicity.
It is with this in mind that a series of story on the pitiful road condition in Imphal has been taken up and if readers take care to note, the roads highlighted so far, ‘Pothole poses grave risk,’ in the September 25 issue and ‘Forgotten Uripok-RIMS road !’ on September 26 dealt with the main roads, not some roads in the leikais and leiraks.
The first story dealt with a huge crater like pothole at the eastern end of the BT Flyover near Gambhir Singh shopping arcade and the other had to do with the busy Uripok to RIMS road !
The two road stretches mentioned here are important routes and while this may not be the working season it stands that the crater like pothole could not have emerged overnight and the condition of Uripok-RIMS road could not have deteriorated to the present stage in a week or two.
All indications that the falling apart of the roads took time and negligence here is written large all over.
This is what is hard to digest. Take a look at the other road stretches, for example the one that runs from Khongnang Ani Karak to the eastern side on the Imphal-Ukhrul road towards Lamlong Keithel.
Or better still go to Lamphel area and see how the roads there have been turned into dirt tracks.
Take a look at any of the busy roads in the leikais and leiraks and all the roads have negligence and the failure of the Government written all over them.
Granted prime attention needs to be focused on the National Highways connecting the State with the rest of the country, but this should not be taken to mean that the roads used daily by the commuters can be neglected.
Time is on the side of the BJP led Government, but this should not continue to be the excuse for its failure to make the roads in Imphal ‘at least jeepable.’
Time also right for the people to give a thought on the destruction caused to roads and other infrastructure during any course of unrest or protest launched by them.
Source: The Sangai Express
