The pride we take in highlighting our condition of peace will more often than not baffle the keen observer. Not only do we stretch the word peace to its absolute limit but alongside it development is painted into a colourful and attractive scenery hung on a wall that can barely take its weight.
Study the details of the painting and you find the Millennium Center, 88 percent literacy, the average helpful and considerate citizen, a long and tidy list of associations of all strengths and sizes, the average man's biblical vocabulary, the steady man of the church, the adidas, nike, puma etc showrooms, the latest bikes on the market, the trendy young and old in branded jeans and tee shirts, etc.
And the wall reflects generations of misguided policy, many incomplete projects of the past governments, the enormous unemployment, the huge gap between the rich and the others, the nonchalant attitude of the Christian public, the average man's constant sacrifice of values for money, the lack of a scientific temperament, young parents who are still being parented, the vision of a 2-year old, the sense of a horse, the appetite of someone who has fasted for weeks, etc.
That is why the painting on this dilapidated wall is such a huge consolation because there is no other way to make ourselves feel right or justified. So we glorify in the beauty of the painting which takes our attention away from the soon-to-crumble structure on which it rests.
Peace is not only a wonderful phenomenon to experience but extraordinary in the current state of affairs in the northeast. We are the only peaceful state in the whole of the northeast, oh wait there is Sikkim too. An amazing parallel between peace and development can be drawn and under most ordinary circumstances peace and development would be married but most unfortunately not in the case of Mizoram.
Over two decades of peace and there is a ghastly lack of reliable and dependable infrastructure. Several small time hydel projects most of which are gasping for breath to generate anything that resembles the light of day. The need for power in Mizoram stands at 120 MW and we have diesel engines chugging away alongside the hydel- based projects to generate a heart wrenching 20 MW. These are sights and sounds that you would probably come across in programmes like Fox history. Another 50 MW finds itself clambering over our territorial boundaries from states beyond. What about the remaining 70 MW? Well, 22 MW of this could have been easily covered by the 105 crore rupee thermal power plant planned, executed and successfully built at Bairabi. Don't jump the gun yet! It was an amazing accomplishment just before our folks at the helm of affairs realized that the fuel to run a thermal plant doesn't come with an annual budget that barely crosses the finishing line. Or is that doesn't cross the finishing line. And the latest I have heard is Aizawl is going to get a ropeway! While most tourist friendly countries use it for attracting customers we are going to address the congested traffic problems of the state capital. By the way a ropeway needs power to run it and I wouldn't be surprised if our citizens are found suspended midair during the peak traffic hours because of expected load shedding. And the last part of the missing MW puzzle is the load shedding. It sadly makes up for the missing 70 MW that we still don't have the capacity to dream of or generate.
Our love for tobacco and all tobacco related products has made us top another infamous list. We have been declared the highest cancer producing state in the country, maybe even in the world looking at the percentage of our population affected by it. At one point, apart from cancer there were many other sicknesses that started pushing our referral cases outside the state into a huge exodus. As a result a brilliant scheme found itself knocking on the door of the authorities. Build a referral hospital in the state and why not just outside Aizawl, maybe a couple of kilometres away. Now the public will not have to make a trip outside the state; the referral cases will all happen within. The construction work at the site certainly, as one drives by, resembles hospital buildings but on a closer look you find that there are uniformed men with guns and not with medicines. If you want to get referred to this place, sickness is not likely to do it for you, probably you will have to try your hand at breaking the law.
Modernization has been so very crucial for every community and society. There are initiatives taken by governments to boost it up. And what better way to give it a serious launch than to arm your security personnel with socks that cost just a wee bit short of a thousand rupees a pair. Or to stock up the state with mobile toilet vehicles just in case you run a loose motion while driving or walking around the streets of your city or town. The cost of the mobile toilet vehicles run into crores only to be sold off as metal scraps to the local dealers at the kilo rate.
I can go on and on. Peace certainly we have and we are at PEACE with the paintings but the painting will not remain where it is when the wall comes tumbling down. Let us wake up from this nightmare that appears to be a sweet dream. We need to wake up and rebuild the wall so that we can save the PEACE that rests on it.
— Robert Hmingmuana
Src:The Sentinel
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment