K Lenangh Angh
The State of Nagaland , India is better described as being constituted by 3 Indian states namely Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh and a country i.e., Burma ( Myanmar).The state having different tribes with their own dialects, culture and tradition. However, when we are talking about the state in terms of development, it is indeed very much far behind than the other regions of the North East. We focus less on development, but rather focus more on A Cup of Tea. ( Etu toh chaa kabola rakilobi)
The prevalence of corruption within the government and local Leaders, and also the ineffective policies adopted, the lack of necessary assistance given by the government so far in providing expert advice and the lack of adequate funds particularly for the development of infrastructure in the region, thus, hindering and holding back the developmental process.
These days we can even see the departmental exams' fee become as a A Cup of Tea, where there is no fixed charge and every department has got the liberty to charge any amount. Some departments charge Rs 10 while issuing the form and again charge Rs 200 and Rs 300 repectively during the submission of the filled up form. Some departments charge zero while issuing the forms, but during submission, they charge more than Rs 200, sometimes even go beyond Rs 400. It only gives more hardships and trouble to the poor students to fill-up just the form. In the days to come, it might increase to Rs 500, 1000 and so on because of the reason best known to them. Aren't the candidates supposed to pay their exam fee only or ? and not for the exam center hall fee, etc. Isn’t the rest is the duty of the department to spend? The respective departments should realise that even Rs. 10 matters a lot to the poor students/ candidates. They struggled and sweated to get the money. They should take into account the traveling expenditure made by the poor candidates from remote areas, and in the case of online submission the charge fee of cyber cafe where they charge more than Rs 150. A candidate spends more than Rs. 1000 just to fill-up the form to be able to sit for an examination. I wish that the government would understand the difficulties that are faced by the candidates and correct the existing system. Making a fixed rate for departmental examination fee and any online charge fee with affordale price will help the poor students who are financial weak.
Moreover In many occasions I heard every Chief Minister saying that students are the nation builders or the future leaders, but saidly they could not even release students scholarship on time, which you call it as installment wise, and the government could not provide good institutions too. We could see on the front page of newspaper stating that the government have ensured timely release of scholarships to students , but instead they give them more hardships and trouble. The best example we could see from our neighbouring state like Manipur state, where a Chief Minister stated in one occasion that the state has no shortage of fund for develpomental works and also launched the CM schlorship scheme for civil service coaching worth over INR 1 crore , while in Meghalaya the state government has allocated the highest budget for education, but in Nagaland I could only hear about shortages of fund from the government. During the UPA rule they made a good excuse of being opposition at the center and fortunately now the state ruling PDA government is an alliance partner of ruling NDA at the center, but i don't know why they are stating one reason after another about shortage of funds in the state of Nagaland for development. I just wish when our government will say that we have enough fund for developmental works and bring a good institution. Even the Nagarjan road, dimapur which was repaired just a year ago is now becoming potholes within a few year and we could not see change for a long. I am speechless to Deeds not Words. Because a politician does not fufill what they have promise during the election.
We can also clearly see corruption in RD Department and different RD Blocks in the state, which is a Department for development by the name itself. According to the Dimapur District VDB Association (DDVDBA) date 28 feb 2019, Nagaland post, the Central goverment had sanctioned Rs 1,30,000 for each beneficiary for construction of rural house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) and deposited into the account of the concerned VDB but instead of inspecting and giving proper guidance to the beneficiary the said amount for each beneficary was again re-transferred by RD Director by simply stating that the department would issue materials for construction to the beneficiaries and issued only 7 bundles of CGI sheets and Rs 10,000 to the beneficiary. So, the remaining 80% go for A Cup of Tea!??
According to the Leader of opposition which was stated during the 3rd session of NLA, the RD department had received Rs 1,157 crore under MGNREGA in 2017-18, while receiving only 138 crore in two instalments in the current fiscal and the department was supposed to receive Rs 800-900 crore by now, which is a huge loss to the state for developmental activities. While in another case it was suprising to know that a VDB secretary of Leankonger village had told that a total amount of Rs 61,50,958 was deducted from Rs 1,23,03,731 by the department under the pretext of departmental deductions and it was also learnt that the VDB was to receive Rs 61,87,985 from MGNERG scheme fund and another amount of Rs 61,15756 from additional fund, the citizen of the village of Leankonger claimed that a total of Rs 1,23,03,731 was received from the implementing department (RD block office Shamator) in the period between December 14, 2016 to August 9, 2017. I hope the deduction of Rs 61,50,958 did not go for A Cup of Tea!? Please, and I hope the department must be having a good reason.
During 2018-19, an amount of Rs 9600.00 lakh has been received under Grant-In-Aid to rural bodies in Nagaland, which was tabled on the floor of the house stated in the Annual Administrative report 2018-19 of the department of Rural development. The report stated that grant-in-aid to VDBs is one of the major state sponsored programme being implemented by the Rural development department through the VDBs. Futhermore the report stated, a mandatory scheme called VDB Welfare Fund is in place. Under this sector fund are deposited @ Rs 10,000 per village having 50 households and below Rs 200 per household for village having 51 household and above from the general allocation to mobilize resources for the VDBs to supplement their activity, and according to the report stated that the deposits are made annually for a period of six years, but saidly, lack of transparency and accountability in the VDBs and RD blocks is very frustrating and hindering the developmental progress of the state and not forgetting besides A Cup of Tea which block the development indirectly.
During the 3rd session of NLA , date 22 feb 2019, (published on 23 feb on Nagaland post) PWD minister stated on reply to unstarred question raised by one of the opposition, that fund allocated for maintenance of roads for district headquarters for the year 2018-19, as Rs 2500 lakhs was released to district (annual maintenance fund) under PWD (R&B) division, while 5000 lakh was released to district headquarters as road maintenance fund. However by seeing the fund allocated for maintenance of roads to district, shouldn't the roads be better? the condition of roads are still the same except for some particular location and area and that too does not last for long. The respective in-charge are not utilizing it properly, and may be most of the funds goes for A Cup of Tea. Isn't is the duty of the Government too to inspect and inquire whether the In-charge are accountable to their work? The attitude of the state governments not ensuring the full and proper implementation of various developmental schemes and programmes too in the state, which also can likely be stated as the reason partly giving rise to more corrupt practices among some of the MLAs and other government officials.
Nevertheless, I feel that various factors or reasons can be also attributed to such sloppy and delayed development in the state, the geographical demographic nature of land or terrain in most of the Nagaland state which is characterized as being hilly and remote which not only keeps the region isolated but also forms as an obstacle to various developmental activities. Such terrain hampers the establishment as well as the development of infrastructure such as transport, communication, industries, market, etc.
Moreover the inactive or restricted role of the media which is yet another cause for slow development in the State. The media, being so called 'the watch dog' has not been playing its role or living up to what's expected of it. In some way, It has failed to keep a check on the misuse and corruption of government funds and schemes by the fraudulent government officials. Yet not many of the media are staying vigilant and updating such mischievous developments, reporting them and informing the public about it, often some media is found beating around the bush and making news that would make money for them. Moreover, the medias role and proper functioning is also crippled by those who have political influence and power in the society. At times, such individuals or groups can even go to the extent of controlling and manipulating the contents of news disseminated through media. Thus, this is also a main issue that results in the malfunctioning that exists within the overall development process, thereby, affecting the development progress.
Illiteracy and ignorance of the people to raise questions, file RTIs, to stand united in fighting for their rights and in particular, for the common cause of development, and failure to take collective actions thereby affecting the progress too.
Therefore, until and unless adequate and specific focus are given by the Government, I feel though the Govermnent would make various promise for developmental activities, the growth of the State will continue to remain stagnated and unchanged even in years to come keeping the same more and more undeveloped and behind in time in comparison to the rest of the neighbouring states, which are quite ahead and developing. The Government should be more sensible and show due obligation towards development of the state and various district as well. Despite the challenges arising out of the demographical terrain of the region, it should take steps to get ahead of them in keeping with its sovereign responsibility to somehow bring about equal development of all districts within in control and territory, without any kind of discrimination and partial treatment towards any district of the state, and the newly created districts should also be given prior importance. Furthermore, an active and conscious response from the public towards any kind of injustice or infringement of their rights will also prove favorable and pave the way for the positive growth in the area.
God Save Nagaland
