Manipur News

From John K Kaping
UKHRUL, July 2: The people of Ukhrul town showed signs of joy when the road development works of the town were transferred to General Road Engineering Force (GREF) from the state public works department.

The PWD has failed to develop the roads of Ukhrul town for quite a long time thereby causing much inconvenience to the people.

After taking over the responsibility of developing the roads of Ukhrul town, the GREF could show good progress in the work.

The present condition of the dilapidated road has caused immense hardship and inconvenience to the people of all walks of life. The remains of the dug-out earth piled up on either side of the made it difficult for people to walk on the road especially during monsoon season.

The vehicles of all types plying on this one-way-traffic road always get jammed because of the slippery mud and narrow passage.

However, the GREF has been working to improve the condition of this deplorable road by using all its manpower and machineries. The people of Ukhrul town are indeed happy with the work progress of the GREF and they hope that their woes for having bad roads will soon be over.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/zc6C5A9fvNM/

From John K Kaping
UKHRUL, July 2: The people of Ukhrul town showed signs of joy when the road development works of the town were transferred to General Road Engineering Force (GREF) from the state public works department.

The PWD has failed to develop the roads of Ukhrul town for quite a long time thereby causing much inconvenience to the people.

After taking over the responsibility of developing the roads of Ukhrul town, the GREF could show good progress in the work.

The present condition of the dilapidated road has caused immense hardship and inconvenience to the people of all walks of life. The remains of the dug-out earth piled up on either side of the made it difficult for people to walk on the road especially during monsoon season.

The vehicles of all types plying on this one-way-traffic road always get jammed because of the slippery mud and narrow passage.

However, the GREF has been working to improve the condition of this deplorable road by using all its manpower and machineries. The people of Ukhrul town are indeed happy with the work progress of the GREF and they hope that their woes for having bad roads will soon be over.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/zc6C5A9fvNM/

From John K Kaping
UKHRUL, July 2: The people of Ukhrul town showed signs of joy when the road development works of the town were transferred to General Road Engineering Force (GREF) from the state public works department.

The PWD has failed to develop the roads of Ukhrul town for quite a long time thereby causing much inconvenience to the people.

After taking over the responsibility of developing the roads of Ukhrul town, the GREF could show good progress in the work.

The present condition of the dilapidated road has caused immense hardship and inconvenience to the people of all walks of life. The remains of the dug-out earth piled up on either side of the made it difficult for people to walk on the road especially during monsoon season.

The vehicles of all types plying on this one-way-traffic road always get jammed because of the slippery mud and narrow passage.

However, the GREF has been working to improve the condition of this deplorable road by using all its manpower and machineries. The people of Ukhrul town are indeed happy with the work progress of the GREF and they hope that their woes for having bad roads will soon be over.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/zc6C5A9fvNM/

By Amar Yumnam
During the second and third century of the Christian era, there were religious leaders who professed that revelation was the ultimate and philosophy did not have any more role to play in human life. They characterised Aristotle as wretched assuming that since the God had spoken directly, the period of philosophising was to be given a burial. They simply ignored the fact that the rationality of the antiquity founded on the rational mind of the Greek philosophers was the strength of the contemporary religion itself; the two were not to be considered as complements at all they felt. The absurdity of this approach is being revealed by contemporary researches in Economics, Sociology, History and philosophy.

Why The Reference: Now I must explain why I have taken this reference to the denial of relevance of antiquity as possessing any explanatory value in understanding a society and the contemporary attempts to restore and re-appreciate the value of antiquity in understanding a contemporary society. The reason is to be found in happenings at home. In recent years, Manipur has been characterised by moves and counter-moves to destroy or rescue the future of the land. While the move to wreck the future of the land as an entity is founded more on not-so old religious-politico arguments, the counter-move for rescue is founded on antiquity.

Politics Without Antiquity: I understand that certain developments in the wake of the beginning of Hinduism in Manipur and post-merger policy failures in the development front have caused ruptures in the original spirits that animated the traditional societal life of the land and people of Manipur. But the question to be answered is: Can we really write off our antiquity and simply start off with a new history? Are there examples of successful civilisations not founded on antiquity, or development experiences sustained only on contemporaneous religio-politico arguments? Can a newly-found rationale serve at all as the soul of a society in place of the antiquity? These are simple as well as serious issues to ponder for while emotions may succeed to create a society temporarily, the long run costs are huge. Here we have many lessons to absorb from the developmental failures and lapses of Indian policy-making in this part of the country.

A land is much more than the geography and form of administrative relations, and it involves people and their history based on the strength of antiquity. Examples are hard to find where mid-course reasons and arrangements evolved out of those have served the cause of a sustainable society. In a world with intensifying interactions and increasingly heterogeneous population groupings, there is little else which can serve as the binding soul of a society than the shared antiquity. This is because it is only antiquity which can serve as the specific foundations of any civilisation and development; newer arrangements can hardly be so in this highly interconnected world. Defending a development and a civilisation based on antiquity is definitely much simpler than sustaining one based on newly articulated rationale. The new articulations naturally are a product of the mind of a few, and it may never attain the status and power of the shared antiquity. We should remember that there are lots to be engaged and miles to go before we can make ourselves fully competitive with the rest of the world.

Here we mayrecall the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. He had advised us that a societyand a state has a tendency to persist along with the initial and inherentqualities. A successful republic has necessarily to be founded on the virtuesof the people, and a bad moral state is difficult to modify if once created. Antiquityhas been accepted as the best foundation for the generation of the virtues ofthe people, and not transient arrangements. There are always issues for leadingthe individual as well as the collective mind successfully and unitedly towardsa common goal. And the question remains: Can we at all create a common goalwhich is fully cut-off from the antiquity?

ManipurToday: Manipur today stands at a historical juncture wherewe need to mobilise our individual and collective energies to take on the worldwith confidence by reinvigorating our strengths and ameliorating ourweaknesses. In fact, the land and the people here have no alternative to thisroute. There is neither space nor necessity now for converting thefamiliarities into problematic. The only option now is to evolve a successful arrangementbased on the familiarities. We cannot and should not subject the people anymore to issues of doubts about the outcomes of the proposed alterations torelationships, for the world today is for preparation for competition and notfor articulations along ethnicity, groups or such partisanship.

When theforce of antiquity is destroyed, the time to generate another force as a successfulreplacement would take centuries. No group, ethnic or otherwise, in Manipurtoday can afford to waste time and energy for the generation of this new forcein place of the antiquity. We are already far behind in the global race fordevelopment, and time is not on our side.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/rzqzqTavKzk/

By Chitra Ahanthem
“Is Manipur tourist friendly?” happens to be a very popular question doing the rounds in the virtual sphere(read internet, and particularly social networking sites). Those saying “Aye” point towards the emergence of a fancy hotel in Imphal that looks like a 3 star hotel and even has a behind the scenes bar with drinks served in open spaces (Manipur being a dry state besides having the moral guardians on prowl means all other hotels also serve guests in their room with inflated bills); the setting up of tourist parks around the state and plans for hotels on the card. Those shouting out “Nay” to the question points out to the lack of footfall of tourists to the state despite the lifting of the PAP for foreigners; that the filth in the city keeps away people and that it is better other people do not see how much of dirt Imphal town is living with anyway; that law and order is a big turn off for people to visit the place.

To begin with: we must first look at what the Tourism department has set its visions on as part of the “Incredible India” brand. On the national domain, the “Incredible India” brand and media campaign is pitched on the unusual sights, sounds and experiences of India: its people, places and culture. The media advertisement campaigns are full of colour and there is a dedicated handbook along with a web site, brand ambassadors, tourism festivals etc. The problem with the Tourism department in Manipur is that it has not broadened its own horizons. Unlike many other states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra or even our next-door neighbours like Assam and Meghalaya, there is no separate buzz being created to highlight Manipur. Tourist information on the state is left to a few insipid web sites and annual calendars that decorate Government department offices.

A genuine reason for not pitching the state may well be the fact that infrastructure for tourist footfall is not up to the mark at all. Apart from the one fancy hotel and its bar, the Government related hotel in Imphal is notorious for its total unprofessionalism: room service and the in house restaurant never ever give service within time (some guests that I had recommended the hotel to stay in came back with feedback that a breakfast order would be served at lunch time, lunch at dusk and dinner immediately after dusk!). The guest-houses at certain places that I know of (Sendra for one) are falling apart while the matter of whether civilian guests are allowed to stay there lies unknown. If there are other guest-houses anywhere else, we are none the wiser about them.

The setting up of tourist parks here, there and everywhere is mystifying: at least for me. They have been set up with huge costs but with what purpose? All they seem to attract are Manipuri film crews and youngsters with cameras in tow. Will we wake up one day to see a surge of tourists going to these “eco-parks”? But when people do not come to the state, how can they go to the said parks ever? If they came, what is there in the parks here that they have not seen in parks in their own home state? Are there indigenous crafts stalls around the parks? No. Are there decent food stalls near the parks (apart from the perennial dark roomed “Fast food” places)? No. So? Who goes? Sadly, not even many local people head to the parks (apart from film crews and young people dating).

Yet, not everything is lost for the state has great potential that needs to be strategically thought of and implemented. The 9 districts of the state have their own unique locations and the gifts of nature: greenery, hills, meadows, small lakes and water falls, peaks and places for sighting birds. Every community in Manipur has their own colourful festivals and dances which can be pitched for tourist tours (think the boat race in Kerala or the Rathyatra festival in Puri, Orissa that brings in thousands of tourists). More pressingly, there has to be support systems in place for receiving tourists and ensuring that they have experineces that they will recommend to other people. Yes, hotels and transport facilities in the state are practically non-existent at present. It would be mistaken to be content with good places to stay in Imphal only: every district should have facilities for private stays in hotels. Or there should be well oiled (read, run efficiently) Government tourist lodges in the districts. There needs to be conversant tourist guides (does the Kangla Fort even have a guided tour for tourists who are interested?) as also setting up Government approved vehicle rates. This is mainly because most out of Imphal travel is taken either by the NGO community or media people who come in from outside the state who hire privately managed vehicles. End result? Inflated travel costs for the common folks!

End-point:
Tourism in the state is in its infancy given the lack of support systems. But all it needs is for out of the box options and rising up to the challenge. The Tourism department needs to also think of bringing in other people and agencies (the Churches can be brought in as an integral partner in the districts as providers for home stays for a fee given the lack of accommodation facilities). They would do well to also study neighbouring Nagaland and its famed Hornbill festival to begin with: how it is pitched and what it comprises of; how the state works with different stakeholders (bloggers, travel writers, photographers) to ensure maximum visibility. The world of possibilities are endless given the range of places, festivals, food and culture that exist in the state and all that is needed would be concerted efforts for the Tourism Department to think a bit unconventionally.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/0pDtGO38m4Y/