Letter from the Editor-In-Chief
Dear friends,
November 2011
Recently in a seminar held at Shillong Lt. General J R Mukherjee the former Chief of Staff HQ Eastern Command said that the position of Manipur is worse than Jammu & Kashmir. Many will disagree such as our DoNER Minister Mr. Pawan Singh Ghatowar, whom we interviewed recently. However, this statement made by Lt. General Mukherjee has a lot of merit. An economic blockade for over 90 days and counting for whatever reason can not be justified. The situation has reached the point where billboards outside shops are reading “buy a laptop and get an LPG cylinder free”.
Manipur is one state with a lot of contrast. It has produced world class athletes who have brought honour for the country, has a unique culture which has linkages with the history of India, scenic beauty, a large international border, plains as well as hilly regions simultaneously. The region is also home to over two dozen insurgent groups, which are responsible for many unlawful activities.
The ongoing road blockade has affected the common people like never before and the suffering and plight of the people can not be understood by a person who has no knowledge of the region. In a situation like this it is quite natural that a fear psychosis is generated among the people, industrialists and the trading community. The side effect of this type of situation is that capital from the region flies back to other parts of the country and the process of industrialization is hampered.
Unemployed youth become soft targets of the insurgent outfits which recruit, train and use them against their own people. On the other hand, the Government in order to curtail the problem of insurgency invests heavily in the state’s defense/paramilitary force with the sole objective of bringing insurgency to an end. They have even been empowered with special acts and powers but they have failed to produce any effective results. It is the opinion of many experts in the field of insurgency, that insurgency can not be controlled by the military or the army. This is because they have too little knowledge about the geography and terrain of the region. In the process of discharging their duties, many innocent lives are lost which results in public anger.
We need to look at the investment made by the establishment in the field of agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, tourism and rural development etc which is adequate to generate self employment and bring reasonable development at par with other states of Northeastern region. Perhaps not, as the data speaks for itself. The per capita credit in Manipur is around `1386/- as against `2280/- for the North East. This means low availability of credit in Manipur which results in slow growth. The tourist inflow was less than 3% of the entire tourists who visited North East. The number of foreign tourist who visited North East and also visited Manipur is less than 1% as per data available for previous years. The availability of road length per 100 km of area for North East region is 66.08 kms whereas for Manipur it is only 51.21 kms. The rail lines are almost non existent and there is just one airport in Imphal. This reflects on the poor connectivity of the region. As against identified hydel power potential of 1784 MW, Manipur has so far developed only 105 MW and another 90 MW is under the process of development. That means that 1589 MW potential identified hydel power remain undeveloped.
All this suggests that what Manipur needs is an intensive developmental strategy, an intense political will to solve the problem of insurgency and strengthening of local administration besides giving responses to the issues that have emotional bearings on the minds of the people of the state. It is time for the centre to look at Manipur in a clearer and different perspective.