Along Longkumer
Consulting Editor
With the formation of a new government and also a new Chief Secretary in place, some welcome policy measures have been taken with a view to streamline the functioning of the government machinery and also to cut down on wasteful expenditure. Recently the Home Department announced certain measures to be taken in order to cut down on avoidable expenditure both by the Government as well as by various organisations. The office memorandum has spelled out some austerity measures to be followed by Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, Advisers and public organizations. While the intent of this initiative is a step in the right direction and needs to be applauded, yet one will have to wait and see if this will remain only on paper or the guidelines will be followed in letter and spirit. Experience tells us that it is much easier to draw up policy guidelines but difficult to put them into practice. In Nagaland we are used to having round the clock events and programmes all through the year. This include our tribal festival, church related function or centenary, village level meeting, social gathering of the plethora of union and association we have and not to forget government programme and party related gathering. Surely there is a need to cut down on our events. By doing this we will automatically save a lot of our time and resource.
Public at large should also be educated on this aspect because many a time, they are the ones indulging in such gala. Just take the case of felicitation for our newly elected MLAs. Irrespective of tribe or district the celebration continues even after more than a month of election results. At one level we have the District Planning and Development Board (DPDB) of all the eleven districts holding congratulatory meet of the elected MLAs. Then we have the respective tribal hohos felicitating their winning MLAs. At another level, respective party unit, both district level and constituency wise have their own celebrations to make. And not to forget, the respective government departments have been having introductory meetings with their new political bosses. A look at the daily newspaper will show how such celebration continues despite election getting over. We need to put an end to the post-election felicitation and get started on the task of governance. With so much of challenges before the State, we can ill afford to waste our time and money on celebration.
The other aspect that we ought to point out while addressing the larger issue of austerity is on curtailing public expenditure to the extent possible. As mentioned in the latest guideline, especially to our Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, Advisors, with regard to cutting down on public functions, perhaps another area to curb is on transport and communication including travel. One of the concerns that we notice every time a new government is formed is the sudden jump in expenditure to procure the latest vehicle of one’s choice. In 2007 the choice of basic vehicle for most of the elected MLAs was the Mahindra Scorpio. Off course if you went on to hold important public office, the grade of vehicle also goes up. Post 2013 elections, the most expensive SUVs have now become the choice of vehicle for some of our MLAs and Ministers. All talk of austerity will come to nothing if we continue to indulge ourselves in expensive mode of travel.
In this regard we welcome the latest government notification to all State departments including registered State agencies implementing various CSS flagship programmes as also the various State corporations, autonomous bodies to strictly obtain prior clearance for purchasing vehicles from the committee headed by the Chief Minister. Such vulgar display of expensive SUVs is something that a resource-crunch State like Nagaland can ill afford to pay for. The Chief Minister will hopefully put some discipline into place so that whatever little generosity we are getting from the Centre is used penny-wise towards improving our development index. Any move towards austerity cannot be a one-off thing. It will require hardship, patience, consistent effort, cooperation and most importantly discipline. The recent government initiative on austerity should be build upon.
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