Regaining the faith of the people: A Resurgent Manipur – Part II

Education: The ‘School Fagathansi Mission’ which aims at Holistic Improvement by upscaling schools, making them composite, with the involvement of MLAs and district administration in the process. This has led to a 30 percent increase in enrolment and a general improvement in performance in examinations.

‘Know Your State’ – helicopter ride, the idea of schoolchildren flying in a helicopter to explore the state and developing a true appreciation and understanding about it. ‘No School Bag Day’ aims at making learning a joyful experience. The ‘No School Bag Day’ has been introduced on all working days for children of class 1 to 8th in all schools of the state.

Health: Infrastructure development of a 100 bedded Covid-19 hospital at Mayang Imphal with an estimated cost of Rs 73.67 crores has helped in fight against corona. A Website named tenbang has been launched to address grievances and financial aid were given to 12,000 stranded Manipuri students outside the state.

Environment: Nambul River Rejuvenation Project, with an aim to conserve the ecosystem of Nambul river and to prevent frequent flooding in Imphal Valley.

Goal of a Corruption free state: The Manipur lokayukta has been activated with the goal of putting a check and curbing corrupt practices in the Government. An anti-corruption cell has also been set up in the CM’s office to monitor and track cases of corruption, misuse of authority.

DARPAN: Digital app for review of Public and Nation launched for transparency in various works undertaken by the government.

Social Security: The CMST (Chief Minister-gi Sotharaba Singgi Tengbang) which gives allowance grants to persons with disabilities has so far benefited more than 5000 persons with disabilities. One stop centres opened in all Districts, providing both emergency and non emergency range of services like legal aid, psycho social, medical assistance, police etc for women facing violence.

Persons with disability can now apply online for disability certificates and cards. Thus, easing off the burden of going to govt offices to apply for these services.

Women helpline: under the Nirbhaya fund, there is now a 24 hrs toll free helpline number (118) for both emergency and non emergency responses to women affected by violence.  

The govt has also opened 24*7 one stop centres in all the 16 districts. Any woman can approach these centres for availing short term Medico-legal services.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana: till date 2.21 lacs of farmers successfully enrolled and are getting paid rupees 6000 per annum in 3 equal installments of rupees 2000 each, at 4 months intervals. The prestigious Krishi Karman Award was conferred as the state achieved highest productivity Rice and Pulses to the tune of 2570kg per hectare and 960kg per hectare against the national average of 2475kg/ha and 779kg/ha respectively during the year 2017- 18.

The Hill Area Development Fund under the ministry of Development of Northeastern Region selected remote areas from all over the country for development  projects and as part of this Tamenglong district was selected in the first phase and a 90 crores drinking water project was implemented in the district. The project is on the verge of completion. This is what all inclusive development stands for.

A 3000 crores drinking water project for the state, funded by the new development bank is in its tender application stage and will commence soon.

Finally, the year 2019 ended on a joyous note for the state when it got exempted from the CAA and was brought under the Inner Line Permit System. The whole of Manipur celebrated the whole night which was akin to a moment of triumph after so many broken promises by all the previous governments. The state leadership’s role in this cannot be underestimated, as it was quite clear that the repeated visits of the CM and his ministerial colleagues to Delhi with the mission of making ILPS in Manipur a reality finally paid off in the end.

Integrated Water Supply Project: the foundation stone was laid by Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji, on the 23rd July, 2020. With an estimated cost of ₹3054 crores, it is the largest single compact project ever sanctioned by the GOI for Manipur. The project is bound to reduce water scarcity problems of the state and will benefit 25 small towns and 1700 villages in our state.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(PMAY), more than 10,000 houses have been built for the poor in rural and urban areas since 2017.

Railways: Soon Manipur will be on the railway map of India. The estimated cost of the project is ₹13,809 crores. With 52 tunnels and 149 bridges, the Jiribam-Imphal railway line is going to be a wonder for tourists. Also, it is an engineering masterpiece. The project also contains one of the world’s tallest railway bridges at a monumental height of 141 metres.

Waterways: Loktak inland waterways project has been approved with an estimated cost of 25.58 crores for augmentation of machinery and infrastructure for waterways cleaning at loktak.

Electricity: From 2017 to 2020, a total of 1.42 lakhs households have been provided with power connection.

Environment protection: more than 20 water bodies(including the Loktak Lake) of the state have been identified for revamping by the government authorities(in consultation with experts of the field) with funding from foreign Environmental organisations.

The highly improved law and order situation of the state under the BJP led Government also found recognition from outside the state. This year, Manipur  was awarded ‘the most improved small state(overall law and order)’ by the India Today Group. This is another example of how far Manipur has come since the BJP came to power in the state.

As an observant citizen, I can’t help but feel that this is just the beginning for a resurgent Manipur, a land which has always been on the wrong side of inclusive development and growth in the past but has always persisted through adversities. Perhaps for the first time in decades, it has a government led by a man who truly has a genuine sentiment of love for the motherland, ably supported by leaders in Delhi who will leave no stone unturned for including the Northeast in any development dialogue and this might just be enough to take the state into promised land. Patience is a virtue and this has been proven right by the people of Manipur with their faith and continued support to the BJP led government. Without their support the aforementioned achievements of the government would not have been possible.