Manipur, quite forgotten

With the roads remaining as they are, what are the alternatives arranged by the state government? Many plans have been envisaged, but none has materialised. As of now, deputy commissioners of the five hill districts have been made responsible and accountable for lapses pertaining to the process of distribution.

But does this system work? Distribution agents connive with transportation contractors in hijacking the essential commodities, and hushing and covering up the whole drama. Deputy

commissioners are misled or cheated or intimidated. The result is untold suffering to those who live below the poverty line in these parts.

A few are brave enough to lodge complaints with the authorities, or to get their problems highlighted in the local and national papers. While many complaints of this kind go unnoticed, or are silenced, some raise a stir. But even when inquiry commissions are instituted, these drag on and are forgotten with time.

PILs too have had little impact on the ground reality. While some have led to shocking findings and exemplary penalties to the guilty, little has come of them in the long run.

Meanwhile, in the hills, people continue to live without essential commodities. Not surprisingly, a few have come to accept this as their fate 8212; further adding to their feeling of isolation and alienation from mainstream India, which counts itself a rising power of the 21st century.