Our Correspondent
Kohima | July 24
Opposition Congress today targeted the NPF led DAN government on the various fronts and at the same time made several suggestions for the welfare and progress of the state. Participating in a general discussion on budget for the year 2010 -2011 in the floor of the House, Congress MLA I. Imkong said the budget is devoid of any innovative scheme for the upliftment of the living standard of the people.
Commenting on Naga political issue, he said it is common approach to find an honorable and acceptable solution and said that the Congress will continue to go for it. Imkong said that there is no going back from its commitment. He however said the effort must be on one direction and DAN must also be sincere to them.
Stating that there should not be any discrimination regarding distribution of LADP fund, he said there should be equal distribution for equal development. Referring to the state’s government declaration of “Year of Farmers,” “Year of Capacity Building” and now the latest is “Year of Entrepreneurs,” he said that it sounds to be attractive but wondered how fair the selection of beneficiaries was.
Stating that Congress used to receive many complaints from the various districts regarding the implementation of CM Corpus Fund and other areas, he said selection of beneficiaries must be done in a fair manner be it under the Year of farmers, capacity building and or entrepreneurs.
Imkong said Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio who also holds the portfolio of finance in his budget speech, has failed to mention two important areas. One- illegal immigrants, saying he did not understand how the state government was not serious in this matter.
Stating that the issue of illegal immigrant is not only the problem faced by Nagaland alone but by the whole North Eastern states, Imkong stressed on the need to address this problem on war footing.
Another area, according to him, that Rio failed to mention is that of climate change.
In this, Imkong said that there is an urgent need to create awareness on climate change at various levels and suggested that policy for the related issue be feasible and effective.
Imkong also suggested that the allocation to agri & allied sector must be 20 to 25 percent of the total budget.
He said much has been talked on food for all and Food Security Act and we must produce enough food. He also stated that without investing in agriculture how can we have more production. Stating that only through playfields, it would produce good players in various disciplines, he appealed to the sports department to work out and at the same time asked the government to provide matching grant to have playfield in the villages.
Also participating in the budget discussion, Congress MLA K.L. Chishi opined that in Nagaland there are certain urgent needs which the government of the day needs to attend and suggested the need for revenue improvement.
Terming revenue as “very important,” he said that for the last many years the state have neglected this area and strongly felt that “It is time we must ponder over this issue.” “Raise your revenue. Increase your revenue,” he said.
We have to mobilize our resources, he said adding that the Nagaland entered into 47th years of statehood and the time has come to improve the revenue as state cannot go for begging all the time. It is high time to create a department of revenue and tax, he said and suggested why not the state pursue this matter.
On prohibition, Chishi said that while implementing the prohibition Act one must see both sides of the coin. He said the government wants to increase the revenue by lifting the prohibition but wondered how church said revenue is not important.
Church asking the Government for more manpower in the Excise Department and the Police force to enforce the prohibition, Chishi said. To create more police personnel, he said, the Government will be have to sacrifice the interest of the common people and use the developmental funds.
“They are giving orders to implement the Act as if they are Jesus Christ,” he said.
Chishi was appreciative of the excise minister, saying some “basic exercise” had been done in the form of convening a meeting with NGOs on prohibition and termed it as “a good exercise”. He however said the Church bodies will always say – Prohibit, Prohibit and Prohibit’.
Referring to much talked on ghost teachers, bogus teachers, fictitious teachers in the state, Chishi said “instead of terminating their service, it is shocking out of blue, you (Government) have started issuing show cause notice to ghost teachers.”
“Who will reply to the show cause notice served to a ghost,” he said adding that a ghost will not come to reply and asked the government to withdraw the show cause notice.
He said the DAN government under the Chief Ministership of Neiphiu Rio can enter into World Guinness Book of Record for issuing show cause notice to ghost teacher.
“I am allergic of road show,” he said and asked the government to specifically mention how much money taken from various departments for the road shows and how much money has been given to different department for road shows.
Also stating that the budget documents presented on July 22 in the assembly session was “a bundle of confusion,” he said some experts should be entrusted to prepare the budget.
He also cautioned the department whoever prepared the budget documents and at the same time requested the bureaucrats whoever formulated the budget not to underestimate the members of the House.
MLA Joshua Sumi thanked the leader of the House, for acknowledging the Congress Legislature Party members who had met the chief Minister of Manipur and have taken efforts to resolve the incident that took place at Mao Gate on 6th May 2010. He however, said that the name of CLP leader Tokheho was not mentioned in the budget speech.
He also thanked Rio for extending appreciation to Prime Minister, union finance minister and planning commission the generous contribution to the state to meet ROP.
He said the state also needed to emulate the Congress led UPA government at the Centre, saying that UPA goes on need based and even in Nagaland where there is DAN government, huge amount is pumped to state and UPA does not make any partiality.
Referring to beneficiary, he regretted that 90 % goes to NPF. There should be no discrimination on the ground of political and religion, he said the DAN must change the attitude and work for the entire people. He said there is the need to progress and march together and live in equal footing.
He also emphasized on the need for good quality roads in the state as all progress and development in the state depends a lot on the development of roads. He wished to see the department is sincere in implementation of various road projects/ schemes so that the state can have better road and compete with the neigbouring states like Assam and Manipur.
On the issue of prohibition, Joshua suggested that Prohibition Act should be implemented in spirit if we are to continue with prohibition. A system has to be evolved, he said adding that just for the namesake of prohibition is not going to help. Appreciating the government of the day for giving more focus to the youth, Joshua described the youths as the most important sector of the population and felt that their interest needs to be protected. MLAs Sentichuba, H. Chuba Chang and Dr. Nicky Kire also participated in the budget discussion.
Meanwhile, NLA speaker Kiyanilie Peseyie said the discussion on budget will continue till July 26.
