The reports in the last few weeks about the corruption and abuse of office by people running the affairs of the Dimapur Municipal Council should come as no surprise. In fact the rot within the DMC has been well known only that specifics and names are being exposed only now. And what we need to know is that all the corruption that we are reading about is not a new phenomenon. It will be unfair to only blame the most recent Advisors or the current CEO DMC. For the last more than five years and in fact ever since the DMC started to function, there has been zero transparency or accountability. The DMC has been a breeding ground for all sorts of power mongering, easy money and corruption. In fact the Morung Express has been expressing concern over the way the DMC was fast losing credibility and had become a den of corrupt practices. Earlier in February this year a workshop on “Urban Governance, Management and Municipal Finance” was held in the State Capital where the Chief Secretary Lalthara made a suggestion that “rich Nagas should start paying tax” and that such taxes should be initially introduced for Dimapur and Kohima Municipal areas. An editorial in this column questioned as to whether “the Naga public can trust our KMCs and DMCs to look after their hard earned money”. We repeat what we commented then: “What is the credibility of our institutions to perform such important functions as collecting taxes and utilizing it for public welfare? Given the present scenario where Municipal councils are seen as lucrative entities to be used for self enrichment, the idea of such authorities collecting more taxes will not cut ice with the Naga public”. And isn’t this precisely what is happening—the ills in the DMC coming to the fore has made our public disenchanted with the so called institution of the DMC and those who run it.
Some people have been rightly mentioning that we need election to the DMC to have democratically elected councilors. Then others would argue that it is better to have Advisors appointed to lend professional help and direction to the DMC. Now the point is that in the last five years or so we have experienced both set of models. Earlier we had elected councilors but much precious time was spend on toppling one set of leaders and installing another set and this continued leading to instability, uncertainty and confusion. The DMC was thus like a political circus. When the term of the DMC ended, there was actually a sigh of relief as people had become fed up with all the tamasha. The appointment of Advisors was seen as giving stability, order, direction and not to forget experienced hands who could perhaps govern much better then elected councilors. But then what happened all of us are coming to know. In both cases, the people and the style of functioning were definitely different. However whether elected or appointed the substance remained the same i.e. gross abuse of power, greed and corruption. So we need to perhaps learn our lesson here that we need to find a cure to the ills within our system. One of the cures is perhaps to bring in honest people with vision and fresh ideas into elected bodies. Then we need to educate ourselves about intolerance to corruption and to obey the rule of law. Lastly we need to cultivate openness and transparency. Some have argued that the most effective weapon against corruption is not harsher laws, but maximum openness about the work of any government body. If every official, whether at local or national level, is subject to public scrutiny, he or she can neither steal nor work badly. All this will not happen overnight but we need to start making the effort. The immediate task will be to help restore public confidence in the DMC itself. Perhaps neither election of councilors or appointment of Advisors will do. It will be good to try a third option.
