Tamenglong: Manipur’s Tamenglong district hit the headlines about a decade back when its young and dynamic deputy commissioner Armstrong Pame built a whopping 100 km road with the help of people without funds from the government.
With development moving at a snail’s pace there, Tamenglong has slid into the list of India’s most backward districts, and reports of people carrying sick people through the jungles on foot to hospitals, lack of government infrastructures, etc., from the district, have become a common sight.
The arrested development consistently prompted civil bodies to raise voices for uplifting the district in tandem with others. After Pame, many deputy commissioners posted in Tamenglong extended their utmost efforts to grow the district in all spheres.
Amid the people’s yearning for progress, Dr L Angshim Dangshawa, 31, a young IAS officer joined Tamenglong as its new DC a few months back, and soon after his joining, he spawned new ideas to shape up the district and executed one of them towards education and public hygiene front which fetched good results.
On September 15, under his initiatives, five mini “Street Libraries” were set up at different garbage dumping sites after cleaning the trash at Tamenglong town at the district headquarters, about 145 km from Imphal.
The library is a small bookshelf measuring about a little over two feet in breadth and about three feet in length, and it stands without lock in different colour shades at five locations – TBC Junction, Old Market, Rani Gaidinliu Market, Medical Gate and Bethel Church Road Junction- at the town. Inspiring quotes written on the shelves include: “The reader does not steal and the thief does not read.”
According to Dangshawa, a Maring Naga tribe from Manipur’s Tengnoupal district, the small project has been taken up to instil the minds of young children to learn, maintain discipline and sincerity as well as the general public to keep the town neat and clean.
The DC, along with his subordinate staff and the public cleansed the areas and set up the mini libraries. It was part of the ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’ campaign under the theme, “Free Garbage India” which ended on October 2.
Though many schemes became either dysfunctional or were scrapped, the mini library initiative was not one of them. Journalists who visited the district a few days back found them functional with young students thronging them. No garbage was also found in the street library areas. Residents were also informed of the running of the library smoothly.
“Many people have donated books for the street libraries. So far, the libraries are functional with young children coming and taking books. In some cases, they have returned the books and, in some cases, they have not returned. Some students have also donated new books,” the young IAS officer said.
“Let’s wait and see for some more time, we will get to know each other. I named the library ‘Garbage or Knowledge?’. This is just a message asking the people whether you choose the garbage or you choose the library,” added Dangshawa, who completed his MBBS course from Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in Imphal East district in 2017.
Dangshawa, who was a sub-divisional magistrate at Paomata in Senapati district before his Tamenglong posting, continued that he has taken up some other new initiatives in the health and education sectors in the district, yielding good results.
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A standard-VIII student of Kendriya Vidyalaya Jaikanglung, who was searching for books at one of the libraries said: “This is my first time visiting this library. I have chosen a book to read and after reading I’ll return it.”
His friends had been visiting the library frequently and said they were elated to have such a library here. Earlier, the area was full of garbage but now it is clean, they said.
The President of Rongmei Naga Students’ Organisation Manipur (RNSOM), Daichui Gangmei, said, “We want to say a big thank you to the DC for his smart steps taken up in the district.”
Stating that the initiative has given an impetus to the habit of reading books among people, particularly the students, Daichui urged all philanthropists of the district to donate more books to the street library.
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