Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 25
Citizens of Dimapur and Kohima are posed to face their greatest challenge with Census 2011. Big urban development plans for the two towns will be determined on the basis of the census result. Any amount of demographic change is going to hamper development planning for Kohima and Dimapur to a great extent. And citizens of the two flourishing towns will face the ramifications of an incorrect census.
Kohima and Dimapur, two fast growing towns with rapidly increasing population, are today nothing short of an urban slum. Poor economic and physical infrastructural and lack of basic amenities has crippled the municipalities. With increasing migration, Kohima is choking and half the population is living in shanties. Similarly, Dimapur is faced with numerous problems of migration; posing great challenges for the urban development process of these two towns.
In the last decade, population growth in Dimapur and Kohima has been over 100% (source internet). More and more people are migrating into the urban areas in search of jobs and other opportunities. There has been a huge increase in the number of students studying in these towns. Physical infrastructure like buildings, schools, colleges, hotels, restaurants, etc has also increased rapidly. Notwithstanding the increase of people and infrastructure, the two towns are unable to cater basic facilities to its citizens. There are problems of water, sanitation and sewage, drainage, solid waste management, roads and street lighting, energy and housing.
In the process of development, the government’s effort to provide better facilities could be dampened as a result of incorrect census. Since all those people enumerated in their respective villages will not be counted in the towns, a great disparity will arise in the actual number of people living in the towns and the census record. Any fund allocated for development in the township will be for the numbers recorded in the census. This will inevitably affect proper planning for the towns. It will be difficult for the government to accommodate demands of all the people.
With better facilities needed in the urban areas, a proper census is required. So unless people are made aware on the repercussions of a demographic change, urban development will suffer.
