The DAN Government’s latest innovation a ‘dance workshop for Naga youths’ is another addition to the long list of creative solutions that the government is employing to do something for the welfare of the public especially the youths. However not everything is going to be beneficial and the dance moves that our youths are going to be trained is something that obviously did not deserve so much spending and could have been avoided by the government. According to the estimate put out in the media, the latest exercise of the DAN government will cost the exchequer approximately fifty lakhs if not more. For a resource crunch state like Nagaland, this amount is a luxury. While the deserving efforts of the government must be duly supported, similarly criticism should also not be taken otherwise. The Angami Students’ Union (ASU) has done well to question the Nagaland government’s sponsorship for a dance workshop involving substantial money. Similarly the Youth Association of Nagaland has also raised more or less the same concerns i.e. whether spending so much money for a dance workshop is the way to go about.
Then the other question that the concerned authorities must answer is whether the amount for the dance workshop is part of the Rs 10 crore budget kept aside for the Year of Entrepreneurs. Also the government can please clarify as to whether there is more than one department which is going to handle the yearlong Year of Entrepreneurs programme. As per credible information available in the public domain, the Department of Industry and Commerce is going to be the nodal agency. However the dance workshop is being handled through the Planning & Coordination Department under the Year of Entrepreneur (2010-2011). Further on the Rs 10 crores meant for the Year of Entrepreneur as announced by the Chief Minister, can the government guarantee that the entire amount will be realized? This question is being raised because there is certain percentage of taxes to be paid to the so called underground groups and also the other commissions that is being practiced under our prevailing system. In a recent editorial this concern was raised about how deduction of numerous commissions would adversely affect the proper implementation of the programme itself. There has been no response from our government.
And by nature the dance workshop appears to be more of a capacity building and training of our youths. Also according to the programme listed out by the Department of Industry & Commerce, it plans to hold a series of seminars, workshops, interactive sessions etc. Should these not come under the Year of Capacity Building? Obviously there appears to be some overlapping and also confusion. The government should clear this doubt being raised. And more so at a time when the DAN government has declared Nagaland as a Land of Festivals, the question that arises is whether it would have been better if priority was given to preserving our dances and songs and for this our Naga youths could have been locally trained in the respective traditional know-how. That way we could have not only saved our money, we would have also done something towards protecting our cultural heritage for posterity.
