Both Silly and Untrustworthy: Manipur Government

By – Amar Yumnam
My academic concentration on Development Economics and the related focus on the South East Asia portion of India started in September 1979 in the University of Bombay. Since then, I have never given up endeavours to keep up with the unfolding transformations in the discipline and simultaneously following the government policies of the region and India. By now, whenever a government announces anything, the potential foundations and the most likely fall-outs immediately come to mind. The present government had arguably the best of the expectations of the people in the beginning. But unfortunately, no government has ever displayed silliness and murdering of trust of the people so fast as this one.
Let me start with the silliness part. Very briefly, let me point out that any step for action announced by the government is a Public Policy and never for an individual’s interest. Further public policy necessarily implies a change in the existing one and something which will last over a period of time; this necessarily involves an interplay of factors which can never be treated casually. The principal guideline in all this is the enhancement of the well-being of the population. Now, as an example of silliness, installation of so-called Smart Metres for electricity comes to mind: A. Is there any study which proves that the existing system has failed and change is paramount? B. Why is it that the States which adopted the Smart system gave up continuing with it because of many anomalies emerged from the adoption of it? C. Why is it that no new State is planning to opt for it? D. The scenarios from A to C necessarily imply that the company which produced this is most likely or already incurring losses.
It is in this atmosphere that the government of Manipur is opting for it, which inevitably amounts to subsidising the losses of the company. Thus, the question arises as to whether the State Government has enough money to indulge in this. This is where the befooling of the public comes up; remember befooling the public is never a Public Policy. I. There is a query – which does look like thinking for the family in a smart way – from every household and somehow install the Smart Meter in a very considerate and friendly looking kind of way. The price of the meter is definitely coupled by a non-official pocket money collected by the installers. II. How is the installer and the power agency qualified to collect information from every household about private possessions purchased naturally with payment of taxes? III. There is also a spread of a presumably charming attraction of the potential to linking up the Meter with the mobiles the households use.
Now this possibility definitely leads to the question as to who bears the cost of the cloud services. Is not it an additional cost to the charges for the electricity? Further, with the scams prevailing, the Smart Metres has the potential to collect the likely expenses for the next elections? Still further, we definitely like to know as to the security system inherent in the Meter such that there can be no manipulation from the headquarters on the ultimate bills. Here I like to immediately tell the persons in the government that Budget is not just the one prepared by the Finance Department only. There is the issue of Social Budgeting which any government should keep in mind. Why I emphasise this point: A. Manipur has never reached the level of even a medium level of development. B. The last three years have been one of the most turmoil years the State has experienced after merger with the South Asian country. Is it right to impose now additional expenses on the society in the name of Smart Metres with a threatening persuasion of going with electricity or otherwise. C. The money collected as the price of the Smart Metres would leave Manipur the next day. Can the economy of Manipur afford today substantial sums of money going out of the State? Has the government examined the implications of the Sixteenth Finance Commission for the economy of the State? Has the government by any chance studied the costs of development suffered during the last three years? Has it examined how long and under what conditions can the economy of the State return to the original position if somehow peace is established today? Without bothering all these issues, the Government is betraying the State and her people by adopting a policy which would immediately imply money running out of the State.