People in Manipur have got used to dirt and squalor so much that they think living in the gutter is normal. Read on to find out why...

Take a walk about Imphal. You will notice two things: dirt and disorder. The town reeks of garbage. Nobody seems to notice the piling waste at Paona Bazaar or Thangal Bazaar. People have got used to both the smell and the sight. And that is the problem. Garbage can be cleaned any time but people's attitude may not change till kingdom come.

A lot has been said about improper waste management in Imphal, and I guess there is no harm if I added more stink to the already rotten discussion.

Firstly, waste collection is a matter of luck here. If you keep dumping at your backyard and nobody collects the pile, keep dumping. Kitchen garbage has a way or sorting itself out and nothing disappears faster from your mind than garbage -- while your neighbours breathe in the hellish stench of your last night's leftover pork.

Secondly, the kinds of buildings people erect these days are quite different from those we saw 10 years ago, when disposable income came from working in government departments and houses were modestly built. Today, young people with big earning power -- both in and outside the state -- are experimenting with how they build their homes in Imphal. What they don't pay attention to is the drainage system. The vintage 'kongban' can't take the load discharged by modern households.
And thirdly, who cares?

The most-visible example is the unholy mess that has set in on RIMS Road. The place has been dug up and left to rot. One can easily make out that the equipment used to execute the project is rarely used. Any good observer will instantly noticanse a sense of paralysis in the project -- the potholes have turned into breeding grounds for mosquitoes, used plastics are scattered everywhere, the water has turned black, flies sit on everywhere and the whole place speaks volumes about neglect from common people and authorities alike.

If you ask around, everybody talks casually about how funds for the project must have been eaten up. So is the case with every damn project you complain about. The answer never changes -- funds eaten up and turned into shit. It's no secret that the Centre pours in tons and tons of money into the state. It's a different matter that New Delhi doesn't have good experience in handling political unrest in Manipur. Right now I am talking about waste management, not Muivah. So coming back, funds from the Centre keep disappearing into a blackhole in the CM's office.

When politicians are too miserly to put the right amount of money in improving drains and sanitation facilities -- even a cat needs a clean place to relieve itself -- God knows what awaits us in other big infrastructure projects.

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