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Front Page >> Editorials > Story

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Shame! Shame!
So now we have a super jumbo sized Ministry and yes the Congress led SPF Government has successfully completed one year in office and yes too Chief Minister O Ibobi appears to have taken the wind out of the Opposition for the time being, but does this in any way indicate that the Government has been able to discharge its duties effectively, in other words is there any governance at all? 

We agree that the problems besetting the State are monumental and it will need some herculean task to pull the State out of its present morass but are these monumental problems any excuse for some section of the people to face the prospect of starvation because of a poor harvest. A report filed by our Churachandpur correspondent and carried in this paper on the April 29 edition gave a vivid account of how some villages in the interior parts of Churachandpur district are facing the ravages of famine thanks to a poor harvest in the previous year. 

The villagers are presently earning their meal tickets by doing manual labor but with the Government unable to regularly pay the salaries of its employees, even this option of earning a living is in danger of running out. We all remember how the BJP fared badly in many of the State Assembly elections over the seemingly innocuous onions but here we are talking about rice, the staple diet of the people. We do not know whether the report of the famine has reached the ears of the Chief Minister but any sensitive Government should have woken up to the report by now.

Looming behind the scene is a prehistoric Public Distribution System that has failed on all fronts. Kerosene, sugar, BPL rice and other essential items that ought to be distributed to the people either go to waste at the FCS godowns or are siphoned off before they even reach the State. It is not only Manipur but in other parts of the country where the Public Distribution System has miserably failed. 

So even as the political netas go around loudly trumpeting that the country is now food sufficient we continue to hear stories of starvation deaths from the hinterlands of such States like Orissa and others. True we are yet to hear any news of starvation deaths here, and yes the villagers of Churachandpur district may not be facing starvation at the moment, but the situation calls for the Government to get its act together. 

It is a shame that some sections of our own people should be reeling under the impact of a famine in this age. What is needed at the moment is some character and the will to put things right. As the report said, conditions will worsen once monsoon sets in as it would snap off communication links, and before matter takes a turn for the worse, the Government should start acting. Remember we are talking about a famine staring some section of the people in the face.

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)

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