Thursday, April 1, 2010

Stop blame-game, let's act !


They say, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” However, this may not be the case with the beauty of our Loktak Lake. The future of this God-gifted lake is bleak! The deteriorating scenario of our lifeline is of great concern. Conservation of the lake is the need of hour.
However, the big question mark that pops up in everyone’s mind is how, how can we immediately start conserving this floating lake?
For the last many years, everyone is blaming everyone! For instance, A (government) blames B (public), in retaliation, B blames A then C (media) blames both A and B and the blame game goes on and on. In the midst of this blame-game, we have forgotten that we are losing our grip on this beautiful lake. Instead of blaming one another, we should act right away from sunya (scratch) to save this means of livelihood of thousands of people.
Though there are many reasons for the failure of saving the Loktak, however, in my opinion, the lack of awareness programmes among the people of Manipur is the main reason of its worsening.
People should be well-informed about the pivotal role that the lake plays on their lives. Awareness programmes like organising campaign to save the lake on various levels, involving common men in the talks and discussions relating to the conservation and sustainability of the lake, the concerned authority such as Loktak Development Authority should organise symposia, seminars and other related activities frequently involving not only the intellectuals but also the public, and lectures on the significance of the Loktak Lake should be held in different schools and colleges among others.
Of course, the Government should take up strict measures to stop dumping of wastes, polluting the lake, spreading of toxicants et al on the lake. A mere paper work and forming so-called monitoring committees to conserve the Loktak will do no good for the conservation of this beautiful lake. The verb ‘act’ is what we need towards the saving of the only fresh-water lake in the north-east India.
Besides, time to time media introspection apart from the above will surely help save the lake. No one can stop the conservation of the lifeline of Manipur if the Government, the public, various NGOs and the media among others come together and start working earnestly towards saving the Loktak Lake.
Let’s stop the age-old blame-game and act now to conserve our life, the Loktak Lake.

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