Our Correspondent
Kohima | February 25
Chief minister Neiphiu Rio today said that immediately after taking over, the government had decided to place first priority on improvement of town roads after seeing and experiencing the acute state of neglect, and the hardship the public were facing on a daily basis.
He said that it is the duty of any government of the day to ensure that people have a reasonable standard of road infrastructure.
“Bad roads most certainly add to stress and adversely affect the health of everyone,” Rio said in his budget speech on the floor of the House.
He assured the citizens of Nagaland that the government will continue to work to provide good roads in all parts of the state.
On financial position
Our adverse financial position is mainly on account of the huge number of Government employees, whose salary requirements consume much of the funds that could otherwise have been used for developmental activities, Rio said adding that this is an area that needs to be improved.
“We cannot continue to sacrifice our developmental requirements solely to pay salaries, and a time will come when we will have to cut down the number of Government employees to set aside our scarce resources to fund more productive activities,” he said. He said that government servants also need to perform their duties conscientiously and enhance their productivity for the benefit of the people.
Stating that Nagaland state was recently visited by the members of Fifteenth Finance Commission during November 27-29 2018, he said “we have formally submitted in our memorandum to the Commission proposal for pre-devolution Deficit Grant of Rs 71,329 crore for the period from 2020-21 to 2024-25.” In addition, he said the government have also submitted proposal for funds for critical infrastructure amounting to Rs 13,390 crore for this period.
Rio said that during interactions with the Chairman and Members of the Finance Commission, the government had highlighted the difficulties the State is facing in maintaining large number of assets created due to paucity of funds.
As a result of lack of resources, most of the critical assets in the state are deteriorating rapidly, Rio said adding that “we also pointed out that many critical infrastructure created during the initial years of Statehood are now in a dilapidated condition. We have requested the Commission to consider our needs in these areas. We have also requested the Commission for grants to specific projects for creation of critical infrastructure such as quarters, offices, schools, hospitals, developmental gaps in the Eastern Nagaland areas, improvement of air connectivity in the State and so on.”
Rio was optimistic that from April 2020 onwards, the financial position of the State will see a marked improvement once the award period of the Fifteenth Finance Commission begins.
