Tag: kanglaonline

By: Chitra AhanthemEver thought of doing a simple head counting of school going children stuffed in Omni Vans? It doesn’t take too much to see school vans packed to capacity going about their business: they are fast becoming a familiar sight in Imphal. Toddlers get ferried in them for play school or kindergarten class, no matter if they are too small to be sitting in a vehicle unattended by adults. To their credit though, some pre schools do have a policy of having adult supervision while ferrying small toddlers back and fro. Most school buses do not have adult supervision and it is often family members who have to monitor their safety while crossing roads or boarding or alighting from the bus.It is disquieting that parents and those in authority related to the education department and road and transport (including traffic police) seem to be totally unaware of how much their children are in the face of danger and how rules are not being followed. Some parents may well feel uneasy about seeing their children all cramped inside an Omni van but are often cautious about pursuing the matter pro actively with school authorities, fearing fee hikes or even the possibility of school authorities asking them to drop their children themselves. Most parents today caught up in the rush and demands of their career often do not have the time to drop their children off to their schools while many do not have a four wheeler that is necessitated by the rainy spells in the state. This then means that parents are the first victims to fall prey to the school van service. The second victim(s) that is directly affected are the children.A school van carrying children sitting in comfort and safety is a sight that is no longer being seen. Rather, it is all too common to see three or even four children sitting in the front seat. I see this sight everyday since my soon to be 6 year old son also sits in the front seat with three other boys of the same size. A total head count gave me 21 children in his school van. The issue here is not just the van that my son travels in, but the fact that the flouting of basic safety standards is being seen as an accepted norm. A front passenger seat should have minimum two kids with the safety belt on or an adult in it. It certainly should not be seating four hyper-active kids! More kids also means that for children studying in a relatively distant place, it would take more time for them to get to school and then back home again. The vans would collect them very early on and drop them off late resulting in more exhaustion, lack of playtime and disrupting eating cycles.The control of school van associations over the passenger service of school children merits a careful study. Things were not the same about ten years back. The unionization of van services is definitely good for their business but it should not be given the position of calling the shots over the safety of children. After all, school van service also falls under a consumer service and any violation of rules must be reprimanded. School authorities must also take pro active action and be firm about balancing van fee and van seat allocation. The Government can also step in by looking into the Manipur Motor Vehicle Act and going through its fine print. If there is no mention of any regulation for school vans and buses, it is time that proper rules are laid down.Some serious reading on the subject of school van and bus services led me to various state laws that have laid down the total number of children that can be carried and other safety norms. Also, the Supreme Court issued certain guidelines following a tragic incident in 1997 when a school van carrying 28 children fell into the Yamuna river. The Apex Court had made it mandatory to equip vehicles carrying schoolchildren with first aid boxes, fire extinguishers, grills on windows, school bag tray under the seat and provision for water. Of these items, none is visible in school vans or buses in Manipur: not the first aid box, not the drinking water though the school bag tray is substituted by the luggage rack on top of the vehicles. But then, the luggage racks are there not to ensure children sit in comfort; without having to carry their heavy school bags but, are a means for their commercial pursuits! More children would fit in without their bags in the way. More children = more money coming in.End-point:This is not to call for a total clamp down on school vans. Those running them need their bread and butter too. But there must not be any compromise on the safety of school going children. There definitely needs to be a system for how much load (inclusive of children and their school bags) school vans and buses can carry. Government agencies need to take a more pro-active role but it is definitely the parents who have to take a stand for their children. Given the number of vehicles on the streets, the blatant flouting of driving norms and rules and massive traffic jams on the roads and streets of Imphal, fatal accidents involving school vans and buses is something that is just waiting to happen. Must we wait for such a spectacle to react?

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It is amazing that a single day of torrential rain yesterday and Imphal city was water-logged at many different areas. In another month or so, when the monsoon is upon the state in full gusto, it is imaginable what the scenario would be. It is not as if this is a new development. Each year, the problem has been progressively becoming worse, implying that the government ought to have begun its remedial actions much earlier. But as they say, it is better late than never. It must now jump into action without further delay. Let us also remind the government that the loss is not just in terms of inconveniences caused to the general public but also in very real revenue losses as well. Take just one instance. The black topping on the roads of Imphal are not flood proof. As it is, they are done so thin and flimsy that even without water logging, rainwater seeps through them to wet and muddy the ground underneath them, inducing the bitumen and mortar surface to begin crumbling. This being the case, water-logging would definitely mean a great deal more damages to Imphal roads, and this is there for everybody to witness every year. Literally, every water-logged monsoon in the past decade or so has meant the washing away of considerable length of roads in the Imphal area alone.
There are two areas immediately actionable. One is in the area of clearing the clogged drains all over Imphal. In some areas, especially in the suburbs, many of the elaborate traditional drainage systems known as khongban have disappeared, thanks to encroachments by residents. It is perhaps true that the traditional drainage system were too big and but much less efficient than the more scientifically conceived and constructed modern drains, and hence their replacement was necessary to reclaim some valuable land without losing out on drainage capacities. But the problem is, while the traditional khongban have disappeared, their modern replacements are still either missing or where they have been installed they are badly constructed and virtually worthless, with the end effect that drain water easily gets clogged.
The second area of immediate action is the issue of disposable plastic shopping bags. These non bio-degradable bags not only make for very ugly sights at every garbage dump, official ones as well unofficial, but they ultimately become a chief agent for clogging city drains. In fact, as many in Imphal would have noticed, they even clog the Nambul River in the stretch of the river that passes by the western side of the Paona Bazar. The government must without further delay re-impose the ban that once existed on the use of plastic bags. Many other cities and indeed states have done it, and amongst the most successful in the northeast region is Sikkim. Indeed plastic bags are going out of fashion everywhere, including in the national capital Delhi as well as other big cities of the country and Manipur must not remain unconcerned. Not only do they clog, but since they are not bio-degradable, they make for virtually unmanageable city wastes. Banning them would thus also amount to a valuable contribution towards promoting healthy world ecology.
There would definitely be businesses and small industries based on making these bags even in the state. They would definitely suffer, but for the greater common good, they would have to find some other means to continue their businesses. The government, in the name of fair play, can also step in and provide them with easy loans and consultancy to shift their business to making shopping bags with other approved easily bio-degradable materials. But it must not like the last time bow down to lobbies which want the continuance of this extremely destructive practice. It must also be remembered that each year tonnes of plastic wastes are ultimately washed into the Loktak Lake where most of the rivers of the state flow into, and this obviously would hasten the death of the lake. The shift in the ecology of the entire state in such a consequence is beyond imagination, but all the same a very real prospect now. Let the government then act now without further delay and ban plastic bags strictly without any compromises. Slap huge fines as deterrent on any shop offering them. We also wonder what all our brigades of environmental NGOs have been doing in the regards. Should not the state have heard of campaigns by them towards the same end long ago? But let bygones be bygones, and they too must now come to the fore to help in the initiative. The ordinary citizens too must be willing to bear the inconvenience for ultimately they will all be the beneficiaries.

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By Amar YumnamConflicts have been with humankind since the beginning of life on this planet. The presence of conflict is not something which should necessarily cause loss of heart among the homo sapiens, but what should be of concern to us is the manner with which we are handling the situation and the potential outcomes of conflict at any point of time. In the case of Manipur, the latter seems to be exactly the case; the overall mannerisms, behavioural manifestations and assertions of power all point to a direction we do not individually as humans and collectively as society intend to move towards. But we are indeed retrogressing, regressing and degrading towards a non-enviable state. The society of Manipur has had a tradition of suppressing overt manifestation of poverty and lack of access to resources, but the daily encounters with people and events prove beyond doubt that we indeed are in a bad shape. Well, we certainly do not possess a red-light area, but this does not in any case indicate absence of the oldest profession. In every conceivable locality in Imphal city, the phenomenon of part-time workers in this profession is absolutely on the rise, and many are pushed into it by economic compulsions. We can also multiply the examples exemplifying the worsening economic life of a larger section of the population. What matters at this juncture is how we as individuals, as a society and as functionaries of the government behave and respond to this retrogressing, regressing and degrading atmosphere. Before I try to articulate my response on the issue, I would like to relate my experiences the other day. The circle in front of the Raj Bhavan, the Kangla and the turn at the Gandhi Avenue are the most congested traffic areas in Imphal, and have been made more so by the various diggings. We have seen many complaints, including editorials in the dailies, expressing dismay and anger against the traffic behaviour of the Very Important Persons of the land in these highly congested areas. I myself have experienced these umpteen number of times. But what I had experienced the other day has shocked me to the end. Judiciary is one we would take recourse to when nothing else functions well, but what happened in the section between the Kangla and the turn at the Gandhi Avenue the other day had really shaken my faith. The pilot vehicle leading the important flag-car carrying an important functionary of the highest seat of judiciary in the province kept sounding the siren all through the section where there is very little space if any for providing space for another vehicle to overtake. Well let us bear with this for once and calm ourselves by imagining it as the price to be paid for the pride of our judicial officers. What followed was even more shocking however. The vehicles completely broke all traffic rules by ignoring the signal of the traffic policeman posted at that point and overtaking all the vehicles from the left lane reserved for driving inside the MG Avenue and forcibly halting all the vehicles coming from the opposite direction. Now when some violations occur and we incur injuries because of that, we do approach the law courts for redressing. But what would we do if the experience just explained happens to be the empirical reality in the land, and what should we expect from the system in such circumstances? In the afternoon of the same day, I listened to a lecture by an American friend on how to establish peace and generate positive atmosphere for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It was a lecture emphasising the significance and criticality of touching and reaching out to people as important tipping points for generating an atmosphere of hope. Now the Connection: Now one may wonder why I am relating the two seemingly disconnect events. Well, the connection between the lecture and the morning experience on the same day lies in the social reality of Manipur during the last few decades and the behaviour of governance while engaging with the reality. The response of the people in charge of governance of the land has been one of shunting out and evicting the general population as if the latter were nothing more than insects. It makes no difference whether ours is a democracy or not. It makes no difference by the fact that elections are held and governments are formed once in five years. The state in Manipur has simply adopted the approach of shunting out and imposing obeisance through fear. In other words, the methodology of the state is the same as that of the non-state, i.e., cause widespread fear and impose order.This contrasts with the need of the land where the government should be increasingly endeavouring to connect with the people in order to address the contemporary issues. Now what prevails in Manipur is a scenario where the government alienates the people, and the different communities shunt out each other – a grand recipe for social collapse.State Failing: Now what we have explained above are sure signs of the state failing in the sense of decline rather than in the conventional sense of civil war, genocides and ethnic wipe–outs. We call it decline rather than failure for we now do see symptoms of the conventional failure to happen in the land sooner or later. Time is now for us to collectively appreciate the scenario and affect alterations in our behaviour so that we save ourselves from the catastrophe.

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By A Staff ReporterIMPHAL, June 6: Showing solidarity to the nation wide Satyagraha initiated by Yog Rishi Baba  Ramdev against corruption, the members of the Manipur state unit of Bharat Swabhiman Nyas and Patanjali Yog Samiti uder the aegis of state Unit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a one-day satyagraha against corruption in front of its office gate here from 8 am to 4 pm Monday. Speaking to the mediapersons at the sideline of the protest, the state secretary general of the BJP Th Shyamo said that the one-day satyagraha was launched in connection with the arrest and eviction of Baba Ramdev from Ram Lila ground, New Delhi forcibly by Delhi police.
Forcibly breaking the peaceful agitation of Baba Ramdev and his followers by the Delhi police with the use of lathi is strongly objectionable, said the BJP Manipur secretary general.
He went on to say that the BJP also demands for the bringing back of black money stashed away by Indians on foreign shores. “Black money account holders are Congress leaders and bureaucrats who are in the payroll of the Congress because of which the Congress led coalition government at the centre is dithering on the demand,” Shyamo said.
Corruption in public place and black money accrued by the corrupt state government are not new things for the people of Manipur which have been exposed more particularly in the selling and buying of the posts of constables and sub inspectors at the price tags ranging from Rs 5 lakh to 25 lakh, he alleged.
L Basanta, secretary media affairs, said that the chairman of BJP-led national coalition of opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), LK Advani had today met the President of India seeking the initiation of a special parliament session to discuss the issue of black money.
The BJP Manipur pradesh strongly condemns the state cabinet decision of not attesting positive feedback to the draft Lok Pal bill which the central government had earlier sent seeking recommendation from the state, he said, adding that this is a covert sign of encouraging corruption in the state by the government. 

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IMPHAL JUNE 17: One constable of the state police has reportedly succumbed to unknown ailments yesterday at around 7 pm while another VDF personnel also reportedly succumbed this early morning at their respective barracks under suspicious conditions.

According to a reliable source the constable has been identified as one Thokchom Rajesh, 27, s/o late Th Jilaton of Sangaipurou Mamang Leikai and currently posted at Patsoi PS.

The same source identified the dead VDF personnel as Athokpam Yaiphaba, 29, s/o late A Kuladhaja of Singjamei Top Leikai and also identified him to be attached currently with the Lamphel PS.

It is also informed that Rajesh was reportedly found lying unconscious on his bed inside the barrack yesterday evening at around 7 pm after returning from census duty. He was rushed to the RIMS but was declared brought dead by the doctors, added the source.

Meanwhile, in a similar incident, the VDF personnel identified as Yaiphaba was also found lying unconscious on his allotted bed by his colleagues this early morning at around 3 am, stated a reliable source.

According to the same source, the personnel was rushed to the nearby hospital however doctors announced him also brought dead.

The personnel was on sentry duty last night at the Lamphel PS, stated the source.

However till the filling of this report there has been no official confirmation from the respective police stations.

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