Z. Lohe
The capital of Nagaland, the Kohima town, deserves better treatment than what it has been receiving during the decades. “Is Kohima Nagaland?” used to become the question of people from other parts of Nagaland as to why the Govt. of Nagaland (not the present Govt.) spent so much money for Kohima town disproportionately at the cost of the interest of other areas in the State. At times there may not be satisfactory reply to such question so raised. The fact is that had the targeted developments been accomplished commensurately as per the amount of funds provided, the roads in Kohima would have been much better, water supply would have become more available, the sanitation should have become less embarrassing, the landslide prone zones would have been mitigated and the overall management of the town would have been more efficient.
The Kohima town requires few basic infrastructures to make it worth calling the Capital of the State of Nagaland.
1. Kohima roads: The present day leaders, be it politicians or bureaucrats, lack sense of shame at the way the Capital roads are left to be in deterioration. The citizens of Kohima are made to suffer from bad road is one thing and the visitors from outside the State to see nothing worth calling road but mule tracks in the State Capital is another. To those visitors, the first two impressions which none will not forget to share with friends on return from Kohima are the town roads and the sanitation.
The subject matter experts know better as to how one can construct a lasting blacktopped road in a hilly and unstable terrain and heavy rain prone area like Kohima. In my layman’s view, blacktopping alone cannot make a road a lasting all weather road. Prior to investment on blacktopping, the basic foundations as proper drainage, cross drain, retaining and protection walls are firstly provided. Without these basics, blacktopping is just a whitewash that becomes a wastage of investment.
At this rate, we will continue to reel under paucity of fund for improvement of Kohima town roads. It is therefore better to take up road repair in Kohima town in phase manner in the sense that when repaired it should be of lasting workmanship.
2. The Drinking Water: Quite some time ago, GOI provided fund for Kohima town water supply augmentation. Huge money was spent on purchase of CI pipes for the project and even those pipes were dumped all along the road. In the midst, with lame excuse, the pipes were collected and took it down to Dimapur and later reportedly disposed off at depreciated rate. The failure to successfully implement the said project became road block to subsequent proposals for the same as the concerned Union Ministry was disappointed.
Those Kohimaians who enjoy requisite amount of water in Kohima town do not know the hardships of others who have to undergo scarcity of drinking water during every lean season of the year. It is said people spend more money on purchase of water than on house rent in Kohima. Having money or not, one cannot survive without water. Even at the cost of School children fee one has to purchase water. The State Govt. is expected to appreciate the plight of Kohimaians as there is no dearth of good water source around Kohima.
3. Medical facilities: The State of Nagaland has crossed half a century in age. Be it the Govt. hospitals or private hospitals, we cannot go on referring the medical cases to outside the State for want of technological equipments or specialists for diagnosis and treatment. The people deserve to have better facilities and at cheaper rates for both diagnosis and treatment.
4. Nagaland is as very fragile and inefficient as India in monitoring the poisonous consumable items be it cereal or meat in the market.
The consumers are naturally ignorant about the quality and validity of those items they consume. These days, the traders use all kinds of chemicals for preservation of their items at the cost of human health. The meat of dead animals or diseased animals are on sale in the market from time to time without any authority to check or ban it. Those authorities who are supposed to be the watchdog over spurious items on sale in the market are nonexistent. The manipulation of weighing scale through intimidation particularly at meat shops in Kohima is a regular practice. The KMC has its responsibility to ensure honest and transparent scaling worth the money of the buyer. The KMC has duty to oversee the exorbitant rates of vegetables and other items in Kohima markets are under control. If there is KMC collecting taxes from the public, so reciprocate in not allowing the private traders from imposing their private rates of their items on the consumers. The Kohimaians deserve essential commodities at cheaper rates than what they are forced to spend on items nor worth their money. To me, the above four issues are most basic requirements than those hi-fi gadgets proposed by concerned authorities as items for Kohima Smart city as publicized.
While the ink of congratulatory notes for Chief Minister TR Zeliang by groups on the selection of Kohima town as Smart City in the second group was yet to get fully dried, the Kohimaians were smacked by State Govt. that for want of 50% matching grant the project cannot be carried out. I understand the inability of the State Govt. to contribute 50% of its share towards making Kohima a Smart City when it has not been paying its employees for months together for want of 10% share contribution under semi-CSS schemes. The GOI may not contribute 100% to make Kohima a smart City by exempting Nagaland for the reason that Kohimaians are being unique.
The attempt of Nagaland Govt. to convert Kohima town into a smart city along with several other cities in India and the inability to meet the condition of 50:50 share contribution ratio will go down into the annals of smart city history except that the Kohimaians will remain enjoying the same old rugged facilities as one of the most expensive places in the country under Kohima Smacked City.
