{"id":15437,"date":"2011-08-25T06:39:27","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T10:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/?p=22690"},"modified":"2011-08-25T06:39:27","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T10:39:27","slug":"let-us-learn-from-economic-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/2011\/08\/25\/let-us-learn-from-economic-blockade\/","title":{"rendered":"Let us learn from ECONOMIC BLOCKADE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_product='wpp-252';var addthis_options=\"Google+1\"<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js#pubid=kanglaonline\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p id=\"internal-source-marker_0.922333030013506\" style=\"text-align: left;\" dir=\"ltr\">By: Neken Singh Seram<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201c <strong><em>The  more our dependence on outside products, the greater is the importance  of national highways. As of the present day generation, almost  everything we use right from the early morning wake-up to the time we  return to bed at night comes from outside the state. Right from tooth  brush and tooth paste to clothes we wear, from apples to rice and oil,  from school bags to Tiffin materials of children, from vehicles and fuel  to entertainment gadgets, everything is imported from outside the  state. It is high time people of Manipur explored various possibilities  to reduce dependencies on the highways and outside markets. We need to  learn use of local products instead of products imported from outside. <\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Long  queues in front of oil pumps indicate the onset of highway bandh for  one or the other demands of people inhibiting along the people\u2019s  lifelines. Government always remains hapless in dealing with the  frequent highway blockades which harass the general population  particularly the poor majority. No befitting action has been taken up  against those taking undue advantage of residing along the national  highways. The supreme court of India has already ruled that highway  blockade is a crime worth punishable. However, till today not a single  perpetrator or organisation involved in highway blockade has ever been  booked and banned in Manipur. Thanks to the inaction of the incumbent  government that does not spare even an old vendor woman of Khwairamband  Keithel for her occupying a small space at the roadside, selling  vegetables and braving traffic police lathis to feed her families.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">During  the <strong>68 day Naga-sponsored economic blockade last year<\/strong>, the normal  social and economic lives of the Manipuris were severely hit. As the LPG  gas was unavailable due to blockade, time of cooking depended on the  availability of electricity during daytime. We saw widespread use of  rice cookers and electric heaters for all cooking purposes replacing use  of cooking gas. People started using charcoal with\u00a0chulaas\u00a0for  cooking at home. The blockade in highways obviously taught a valuable  lesson to the Manipuris regarding economical use of fuel at home and  outside. Earlier most people recklessly used LPG for domestic purposes  keeping aside the electric heaters and rice cookers rusted for long.  But, we were forced to repair the electric heaters and\u00a0chulaas\u00a0for making tea, boiling water, preparing curries and fries.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Although  its negative impacts have hard-hit the inhabitants of Manipur hills and  valley people during the last few months, economic blockade is not  bereft of intent merits providing durable benefits to the people.  Unnecessary roaming on vehicles has drastically reduced as petrol prices  in black market sky-rocketed as high as 120 per litre. Long queues have  adorned the oil pumps. Besides using public carriers like Auto-Rikshaw  and Magic-Tata by office goers, number of cycling and walking people  will also rise in course of time. As many vehicles are off the roads due  to fuel scarcity, there will be reduction of air and noise pollution in  city. Fuel scarcity will certainly make a valuable contribution to the  health of many people who walk and ride cycles for their routine  businesses by activating body metabolism and controlling body weight.  Thanks to blockade sponsors who indirectly help us realized the  relevance of simple living.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Dearth  of edibles coming in from outside the state will compel many people to  use local products made by self-help groups. Most popular are:\u00a0papad, pickles, chow-chow, Khurman, kabok, spices\u00a0and\u00a0juices\u00a0of various kinds.\u00a0\u00a0It is time to teach our children children to eat <strong>Kabok, Laloo, Heingan,\u00a0Khurman<\/strong> instead of\u00a0<strong>Cakes,\u00a0Uncle Chips\u00a0and\u00a0Lays<\/strong>. Local made eatables may replace\u00a0Macorni,\u00a0Maggi\u00a0and Chow-chow\u00a0for  School Tiffin. The quantum of demands for local products during the  economic blockade may be almost double. Hundreds of women who are  engaged in ferrying these products from place to place may be benefitted  in their business.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">One  most rewarding merit of the long economic blockade by the various Naga  bodies last year was the garner of attention of the government towards  improving the conditions of national highway number 53. However, no  improvement has been seen as yet. The said alternative lifeline of the  Manipur people which had long been neglected by the government will now  be put up again as the most debated agenda of the ensuing general  elections.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Locally  available fruits should take the place of apple, grapes, mangoes and  pomegranates imported from outside which are expensive and the prices of  which often fluctuate due to transport disruptions. Cooking LPG uses  may be reduced at the minimum by utilizing the electricity economically  and adopting the traditional charcoal\/ fuel wood burning. People in  general need to popularize walking and cycling for less-hasty and  less-distant businesses. It serves the trio-benefit of health  improvement, saving fuel and reducing pollution. If we can be  familiarized with such habits and practices, the hardships due to  economic blockade will not be too grave as before. The simple living and  Swadeshi philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Nation have  found total relevance in Manipur at this hour of highway blockade.<\/p>\n<p>(The writer is a freelance journalist)<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The above article was sent to Kanglaonline.com by Mr. Neken Singh Seram<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=9b19bd4a-4c2a-4276-a593-27c50df82850\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">Read more \/ Original news source: <a href=\"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/08\/let-us-learn-from-economic-blockade\/\">http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/08\/let-us-learn-from-economic-blockade\/<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Neken Singh Seram \u201c The more our dependence on outside products, the greater is the importance of national highways. As of the present day generation, almost everything we use&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/08\/let-us-learn-from-economic-blockade\/\">Read more <span>&#187;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[770,771,33,43,330,34,772],"class_list":["post-15437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kanglaonline","category-news","tag-blockade","tag-economic-blockade","tag-india","tag-k-featured","tag-kanglaonline-2","tag-manipur","tag-neken-singh-seram"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}