Aheli Moitra
In too many editorials, news items, opinions and articles the roads of Nagaland have been beaten blue. Not the roads, but the institutions and men behind the roads. Policy initiatives have been questioned, leadership cast doubt on and campaigns arranged around potholes. It seemed, especially during monsoons, that the PWD has gone to sleep. Or washed away along with its slinky black top.
It took too many visits to Manipur for this writer to see that at least the black top exists. After a long journey through Manipur, driving into Nagaland through Mao gate felt like a ride into comfort. The roads seemed creamy, and only five potholes could be detected in a minute. In comparison to the hill districts of Manipur, neighbouring Nagaland could be a second world nation.
That, perhaps, is befuddling to those who have been to Imphal—a city far more organized, clean and developed than Dimapur. In the last 3 years, it has developed as much as conflict has proliferated in the State. The Manipur Film Development Corporation, the roads of Imphal, the Imphal Bench of the Gauhati High Court, the Manipur University and other such infrastructure make Imphal an edge and a half above Dimapur. Kohima doesn’t come in the reach of comparison—even the Tamenglong district headquarters is better planned than Kohima.
But it is in the category of overall road development, in the most difficult zones, that Nagaland fares better. Even if we consider the roads that lead to Mon, or the insides of Tuensang, that are an eastern citizen’s nightmare, Nagaland has done better than Manipur. Nagaland, more than Manipur, has been able to prevent proliferation of violence and marginal armed groups even though it is within the realms of a ceasefire. It has been able to bring people from many corners into Kohima and Dimapur—to education and healthcare.
Manipur, on the other hand, does not have a railway connection that makes life worse for those stuck in the backwaters of connectivity. In the hills of Manipur, this would be the Naga, Kuki, Hmar, Paite and other tribes. Where there is no normal connectivity for governance, education and healthcare to get through, arms and violence will find a way.
Educationally, those from Manipur University probably fare better in academic reasoning but the redundancy that the Manipur State has put its hill tribes through pulls the capability back by years. The consideration is if Imphal can be developed in such a way, why not the hills? Of course infrastructure development is difficult in the hills but the problem seems more of political will—important highways like NH-53/37 remain reflections of the disturbed state of affairs in the State. Controversies over funding and alignment have remained with it for years now; even Chidambaram’s intervention could not straighten it out. This seems absurd when the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has shown its capability to construct respectable roads in Senapati district like the Maram-Peren Road (though it does not have hundreds of tonnes of supplies from Assam plying on it everyday unlike NH-53/37).
If the problem, however, is of inability then a solution out of this debacle to provide the basics of development, balancing them with rights, should not be so resisted.
