Manipur News

Ningthoujam Irina
It is an accepted premise in theory and practice that `Local Self-Governing Institutions`™ play an important role in effectively running a village or a residential locality. These institutions can be either traditional or modern rational based formal and informal institutions. In addition to the institutions of Panchayati and Municipal Council of local self-government, for Northeast India, the vision document North Eastern Region Vision 2020, acknowledges the presence of a strong tradition of local self-governing institutions in the region through `Traditional Institutions (TI)`™. It is through these institutions that people participate in the democratic governance of their own life by actively engaging in the decision making processes of making choices and implementation of those decisions. In this regard, here is an attempt to review how traditional institutions in Manipur are recognised vis-à-vis the state position in the recently enacted `The Manipur Municipality Community Participation Act, 2010`.

The North Eastern Region Vision 2020 document, consequently, expresses the desirability and the necessity to ensure a harmonious relationship between the constitutional institutions of local governance and the `Traditional Institutions (TI)`™ for better governance of the people and for the region at large. The document also mentioned that `a top-down development planning strategy has not involved people in designing and implementing the strategy and, not surprisingly, the relationship between public spending and service delivery outcomes has been tenuous. The various public investment projects in the region have not yielded commensurate benefits. Lack of people`™s involvement has robbed the system of a sense of belonging and led to inefficient and wasteful resource allocation on the one hand and a lack of social accountability on the other.` That is to say decentralized governance with active participation of the people is an end in itself as it reaffirms the universal value that all men are equal and the right to decide his/her own future lies within the individual self.

Leikai and Leikai club
In the valley areas of Manipur, TIs include various clubs, associations and peoples`™ organizations. Ubiquitous among them is the Leikai Club, the prominence is reflected in the document also when it said that `while designing local planning approaches, care must be taken to harmonise the functions and rights `¦. the Clubs of the Manipur valley`¦. with institutional mechanisms designed for modern development and service delivery.` There are as many clubs as many Leikai (a helmet/locality/Mohallah) in Manipur.

In fact the idea of community is embedded and built in a space of `Leikai`™ with regard to the Meitei community of the Imphal valley. The space of a Leikai is an imagined space. It has a structural and behavioural value which can be understood through its system of kinship, pseudo-kinship, social norms and rituals. This can be seen as a kind of self that is being embedded into a bigger collective. People are bound by social obligation in terms of behaviour obligation and etiquette. A lot of activities right from the rituals of birth to death or any local festival are done with support from the community members. So, it is mandatory to invite or inform the member of the community for every event, that`™s the reason the society, has tradition of `leikai varton chatpa`™.

Further, the interrelationship and cooperation between one another is manifested in the form of many existing traditional institutions of Singllup or the informal micro-credit Marup institution. They play a dominant role in the collective imagination and existence as a Leikai. Though, it appears that present day solidarity has shifted from the core belief of collective existence to a material base or a more individualised economic base solidarity. `Capital as solidarity`™ for the want of a better expression. The foundation of solidarity in Manipur society is the sharing and understanding built through the above collectives. This is the reason why people impose an obligation on the self to go and share the pain and joy of others. A Classic example is the tradition of asi-hangba chatpa. For this people did not need a formal invite or the capital do not determine the sharing of the others world. It is through such sharing that a common world is established that is recognisable to each other.

At the same time, it is also an undeniable reality of our time that the forces of capital and material has started determining our ways of life and renders the society and people to a commodity of the `modern`™ world. Yet, the present day `club`™ since early 1940s`™ has been an evolutionary form of a Leikai collective mechanism to participate in activities of collective goods or to face any crisis collectively in the space of a Leikai. As any organisation has its own history of good, excellent and bad times, Clubs are no stranger to this universal phenomenon. But, they in one way or the other contributes to sports, education, crisis management, local developments etc. in the Leikai. The recognition of their activities has also been registered in State/National administrative reports since Independence.

Manipur Municipality Community Participation Act, 2010
The opportunity of recognising and institutionalising these roles of Leikai Club or any other equally important TIs could have taken place in this recently enacted `Manipur Municipality Community Participation Act, 2010`. But sadly, the enactment of such an Act astonished everyone. This Act has come through `Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)`™, to achieve the United Nation Millennium development Goals (UNMDG) by 2015. In fact, every programme and mission under UNMDG emphasised to achieve the community participation. JNNURM is a programme for the development of urban infrastructure which is funded by the World Bank which demands the enactment and modification of Municipalities Act institutionally and structurally. One of the objectives of the scheme is to assist the select Urban Local Bodies to institutionalize key urban reforms. As a safeguard mechanism one of the proposed stakeholders indentified is the ward development committee to strengthen local governance.

This ward development committee under the `Community Participation Law`™ (CPL) is to be passed within 6 months of the signing of the Memorandum of Association under the Mission and submitting a copy to the Ministry of Urban Development. The states must also abide by and implement some conditionalities including privatization of water and sanitation services, repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCRA) and implementation of public-private partnerships (PPP).

Manipur is also not immune to this development and `Manipur Municipality Community Participation Act, 2010` was enacted by the Manipur Legislative Assembly. Under the influence of global capital and neo-liberal ideas `“ promotion of particular type of civil society and less role of state and privatization of delivery of services is sought to be promoted. As a party to it Government of Manipur, in the Act, defines Civil Society as
any non-government organization or association or persons, established, constituted, or registered under any law for the time being in force and working for social welfare, and includes any community based organization, professional institution and civic, health educational, social or cultural body or any trade or industrial organization and such other association or body as the state may decide

By defining through an act, Kakchingtabam Naresh in `Democracy and Civil Society: Absence of the sovereign in Northeast` observed that the government has used civil society as an instrumental tool for the production of labour in its relationship between the government and the individuals for the production of a new set of socio-economic relationships. Further, the act disregards the importance of the democratic role that is being played by traditional Institutions in the development and sustenance of a locality or residential area in the Manipuri society. Thus the act doesn`™t include any of the traditional institutions or address the issue of gender inclusiveness. That is to say, the Act is no different from any other government bureaucratic organisation as it mentions the composition of the ward development committee as
a) The Councillor of the ward, who shall be the Chairperson of the Ward Development Committee,
b) Two persons to be elected from the ward,
c) Two persons representing the civil society from the ward, nominated by the state Government.
This has raised basic questions on the democratic character of the committee since it is not mentioned how far is this act of nomination of two persons by the state going to be democratic so do the constitution of ward finance committee and ward information and statistical committee through nomination by the state. Instead of democratization, what the act actually does is bureaucratization by opening a widow for vested interest to operate. It needs to be emphasised again that the very purpose of 73 rd and 74thAmendment is neither administrative decentralisation nor mere devolution but to establish an `institution of self Government` in rural and urban areas. This is even in total inconsistency with the real objectives of achieving community participation of MDGs. Along with this it is a complete unawareness on the proposed recommendations of the vision document North Eastern Region Vision 2020.

In addition, by fixing the responsibility of addressing the grievances of the people on the chairperson, who is a part of the same structure, the act does not address or failed to take into account the mechanisms of accountability by the people in a democratic way. This also raises questions of how the idea of community and participation is conceptualised by the policy maker of the state. Where do the local community stand in the allocation of resources in democratic planning? Are the local community organisations given due space in such exercise of allocation of resources.

Surprisingly, the information of the Manipur Assembly passing the Act came in July last year through a local newspaper. But, in complete disregard to all democratic norms, the government of the day did not consider it worthy to publish in the media to receive people`™s comments and suggestions before passing such an important Act. In contrast, the neighbouring states of Nagaland and Meghalaya, the Act were put in the public domain inviting suggestions and comments. It`™s no wonder that the enactment of the Act was preceded by the suspension of democratically elected or constituted constitutionally mandated public body the Imphal Municipality Council (IMC) that was made redundant by the successive governments of Manipur by not decentralising its constitutionally mandated functions. For example 19 such municipal functions in City Development Plan, such as water supply, urban amenities are not performed by the IMC but by other State departments such as Department of Town Planning, Department of Public Health and Engineering, Department of Fire, Planning and development Authority, etc.

In the state of Meghalaya, though their State Community Participation Act is still being challenged and questioned by the Traditional institution leaders, their ward development committee includes the representatives of Durbar/Council/traditional. Along with this, 3 (three) women either from Seng Kynthei/women organization/ individuals who are the eligible voters of the concerned Ward are also to be nominated by the Government in the Ward Committee. Such is the sensitivity of the state unlike our state Manipur which has active women collectives like Meira Peibies.

Conclusion
Therefore before the state start implementing this ward development committee, every concerned citizen/Local Club executive must think and debate over such behaviour of the state planning and policy making process. The state`™s policy and Act must not be at the cost of our own people and its aspiration. It should be sensitive enough to consider its social and cultural complexities. It is not just the lack of governance but the very act of planning and institutionalising the structural mechanism that is not democratic in nature which will impede translate effective and accountable governance. It is the need of the hour to question the understanding of the political elites of Manipur towards their own citizens while framing such important Acts of the state.
irina.ning@gmail.com

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IMPHAL, April 6: Considering the deteriorating law and order problems in the state specially in the valley districts involving different cadres of insurgent groups operating in the state, state cabinet in its meeting held today approved creation one more police station above 20 police stations which functions in the state.
According to a highly placed official source, state cabinet meeting convened this evening chaired by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh at his official bungalow and approved for the creation of one more police station ie New Keithelmanbi PS so as to enable the state police department to cover up any incident and cases related to the law and order problems that happen in the respective Jurisdictions of the maintained police stations.
It may be mentioned that, as per the last cabinet decision the number of the police stations have increased to 20 which includes 15 Police Stations covering 15 villages, Yaingangpokpi Police Stations covering 19 villages, Borobekara Police Station at Jiribam covering 38 villages, Nongpok Sekmai Police Station covering 21 villages, Hierok PS covering 14 villages, Khongjom PS covering 13 villages, Hiyanglam PS covering 15 villages, Wangoo PS covering 12 villages, Nongmaikhong PS covering 8 villages, Phougakchao Ikhai village covering 14 villages, Keibul Lamjao PS Covering 10 villages, Khengjoi Ps covering 51 villages, Sangikot PS covering 105 villages, Willong PS Covering 10 villages, Tungjoy PS covering 11 villages, Purul PS covering 17 villages, Pahibung PS covering 22 villages, Dzii PS covering 24 villages, Sanakeithel PS in Ukhrul district covering 10 villages.
The official source also further mentioned that, state cabinet this evening also approved the creation of post of Sub Divisional Officer in Imphal West District to hold the SDPO post for Mayang Imphal Police Station and Patsoi Police Stations and the state cabinet meeting today also approved the liable financial implication for creating SPDO Mayang Imphal amounting Rs.3,91,644 per annum expenditure be made and the same expenditure will be reflected  to the revised estimates, 2011-12 be made under Imphal West District Police.
Later the state cabinet also approved for the framing of rules for the appointment of teachers under RMSA, the official source added.
It also mentioned that the cabinet today approved for the election for the Imphal Municipal councils. In this regard the official instruction will be given to the state election commission for the publication of preliminary electoral on April 11.The last date for the filing claim and objection on electoral roll has been fixed April 15 and the date of the publication of the final electoral rolls is April 25.
The completion of the process will carry out the date of notification of the election on May 4 and followed by the filing of nominations to the said Municipal councils by the candidates will be on May 9. The date of scrutiny is scheduled on May 10 and the election will be conducted on May, 25 this year.
The objectives of all the preparations is to hold the election of the Municipal councils on April 25 and the cabinet meeting also decided all necessary preparation for holding smooth and successful election to the concerned district authorities.

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From John K. Kaping UKHRUL, April 6: The future of the Poi Village government run Primary and Junior  High Schools’is in a deplorable condition as the government schools established during 1961-62 exists only in a “snap-shot” in the record of the most neglected status. Poi village situated in the extreme North of Ukhrul District just below the Somra track range mountain bordering Myanmar,along the Indo-Burma Border Pillar NO.126,127 and 128 and is located some 65 km away from Ukhrul Headquarter and at a distance of 25-30 km away from Awang Kasom junction.
The government`s neglecting policies towards the far flung Ukhrul District villages  came to light  when  Ukhrul Correspondent of IFP exclusively had an interaction with the village school`s “master” at the school campus, who is the only under-graduate lady teacher  taking the overall in charge of Headmaster for both the 90 students in junior and 100 primary students enrolled in the school as disclosed by the schoolmaster.
She also expressed  the present dilapidated condition of both the schools and viewing the bleak future of the  students keen to learn but with lack of basic infra structures and without any benches, desks, black boards and tables . Walls of the 5 rooms of the the school`s building in all four sides are badly damaged as the roofs of the school were blown away.
The surroundings of the schools are found overgrown with grass when the report was collected by this correspondent and there is a report of only one chaowkidar appointed. The reason behind to shape and mould the future pillars of students according to the headmistress in-charge is the acute lack of teachers as the students are eagerly found to attend the classes but there are no teachers other than the headmistress who is not in the condition to cater to the needs of the students at present.
Meanwhile in  another press conference Organized by the Poi Village authorities in the village, the concerned authorities seriously pointed out the deplorable condition of the schools in the village and the bleak future of the students requiring immediate recruitment of adequate teachers to mould the future careers of the children as almost all the remote villagers cannot afford to send their wards to private schools.
The authorities clearly mentioned that under the programme of BADP 2010-11, the village proposed a budget with the estimation of about Rs 30 lacs to construct the schools infra-structures including 12 to 13 class rooms, staffs rooms, principal`s Office, kitchen but the government had sanctioned for only three classrooms.

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