Governor of Assam and Nagaland, Prof Jagdish Mukhi and his wife paid a floral tribute at the bust of Dr Imkongliba Ao on the occasion of Nagaland Statehood day at Raj Bhavan on December 1. (Photo Courtesy: PRO Raj Bhavan)
Our Correspondent
Kohima | December 1
Addressing the 60th statehood day celebration at Nagaland Civil Secretariat Plaza, Kohima on December 1, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said, ‘our people are our greatest strength and resource.’
‘They are naturally talented and skilful and today our people are not only involved in agriculture but also in trade, construction, service industry, and are entrepreneurs providing employments to thousands. There are many who are pursuing careers not only outside Nagaland but outside India also,’ he said.
The CM said that development of “our human resources” has been a focus area of the Government.
In the last six decades, Nagaland has seen giant strides being taken for creation of educational and technical institutions for the development of human resources.
Starting from 593 schools and two Colleges in the early years of statehood, we now have 2718 schools, and 69 Colleges, he said adding that a World Bank project has been launched from April 2021 with the objective to transform school education, improve education system and school management, and enhance teaching learning environment.
As regards technical institutes, we now have three Engineering Colleges and nine Government Polytechnics in the state, while at the time of statehood we had none, he said.
A medical college, which was sorely missed by the state for a long time is soon the application for obtaining permission from the Medical Commission to start admission of students in the Kohima Medical College from academic year 2023-24.
He also stressed utmost need to continue providing the best and latest educational facilities to the youth so that they are equipped in every way to successfully compete in the fast-changing world.
‘Health is the greatest asset’
Maintaining that “Health is the greatest asset of an individual,” he said the delivery of health services has, therefore, also remained a focus area of the state Government in the pursuit for enabling our people.
“When we started as a state, we had less than 100 doctors in the state whereas now we have 1235 doctors registered with Nagaland Medical Council. We had only around 60 health facilities, whereas today we have 775 health facilities in the Government sector and 99 private healthcare establishments catering to our people's health needs,” Rio said.
Referring to launching of the Chief Minister's Health Insurance Scheme. (CMHIS) on 14th October 2022, the chief minister said the Scheme takes advantage of the insurance platform developed under the ongoing Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM -JAY), which caters to a limited population, to provide coverage of free and cashless treatment to the remaining population including Government servants and pensioners.
The coverage provided to Government servants is much more superior than was available under the earlier Medical Reimbursement Allowance scheme. It also covers all pensioners, who were not getting Medical any benefits at all. An enrolment drive for issuing the CMHIS Card that is required for availing of free cashless treatment is going on throughout the state, Rio said.
Rio called upon every citizen of the state to avail of this and get registered for CMHIS at the earliest possible so as to avail the full benefits of this scheme.
Nagaland now boasts road network of over 14,000 kms
The CM described roads as the most important enabler of development anywhere, enabling producers from farmers to entrepreneurs to get connected with markets, “have always, and rightly so, remained at the top of our priority list.”
“Our state, which six decades back had only 2000 kilometer of road network, now boasts a road network of over 14,000 kilometer, with 1630.88 kilometer as national highways. We have added another 2,500 kilometer in the last five years,” he said and assured to continue to endeavour for taking roads to every nook and corner of the state.
Rio thanked the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India for their assistance as well for taking up road construction work on some important routes in the state.
“We have started work on one of the most ambitious road project of our state, the 'Foothill Road', and considering the enormous benefits that it is likely to bring to our people, we have also been pursuing with the Government of India for its funding,” Rio said.
Development 42 MW Lower Tizu HEP, 24 MW Zungki HEP
Rio said that electricity is another very crucial element for the overall economic development, has also continued to get the attention it deserves of the government all along.
“We could get cent percent villages covered with electricity supply in the next about two and a half decades, the first state in north east to achieve such a feat,” Rio said.
In recent years by construction of more sub stations, transmission and distribution lines, the reliability, stability and distribution to all consumers both in urban and rural areas, are being continuously upgraded and improved, Rio said.
He said that the state government has initiated development of two medium Hydro Electric Projects - 42 MW Lower Tizu HEP and 24 MW Zungki HEP.
The installation of a large number of smart prepaid electricity meters in Dimapur and Kohima is another significant step being taken for reduction of AT&C losses and improving revenue collection in the power sector. In due course of time, more towns and more consumers shall be covered under prepaid meter service, Rio said.
Food grains production jump to more than 7.5 lakh MT now
He said that overall production of food grains in Nagaland in the last six decades has seen a good jump by about 12 times to more than 7.5 lakh MT now.
He said that the good quality agricultural and horticultural produce of Nagaland has good demand in the market, adding that the state have obtained Gl tag for three of agro products - Naga tree tomató, Naga cucumber and Naga Mircha.
He called upon everyone concerned and farmers, to build upon the great advantage that “we have, and strive for making Nagaland one of the premier states in regard to organic farm and horticulture produce.”
‘Marching ahead towards achieving excellence in sporting arena’
The CM said that “We are slowly but surely marching ahead towards achieving excellence in the sporting arena.
He recalled that in the recently concluded 2nd North East Olympic Games at Shillong, Nagaland athletes shone as never before, winning 79 medals.
“These are almost twice of what we won in the last Games, a stupendous achievement by any yardstick. Our youth have always been second to none in talent, dedication, the zeal to succeed, and handle adversities. They only require the right mentoring, facilities, and the requisite infrastructure which we are providing and will continue to do with even more commitment. With all our efforts, we should soon see many of our sports persons representing the country and winning medals in global sporting events also,” Rio said.
Rio said that bringing about rapid improvement in the quality of life and furthering the ease of living with a view to bring out the God given talents of our people has always remained the cornerstone of all our efforts.
“We continue to give full thrust to all the various public welfare schemes and programs in operation in the state with the collaboration and assistance of the Central Government so that we achieve saturation in every scheme at the eastliest possible,” Rio said.
Our various IT initiatives for e-governance are also helping in improving transparency and the delivery of services to the people, he said.
Step towards streamlining process of recruitment to Govt services
Rio maintained that a significant step towards streamlining the process of recruitment to Government services and moving towards a completely merit and transparent based system was taken “when we made the NSSB functional and it successfully conducted its first ever competitive examinations across the state for recruitment of 630 Group C posts under various departments in which more than 50,000 candidates appeared.”
In terms of policy and regulatory ecosystems, the state government has prioritized ease of doing business and simplification of regulatory framework and compliance burden for investors.
The state has developed a single window system to facilitate private investments. The State organized the 1st CSR, Investment and Banking Conclave in the month of August 2022, which led to major collaborations and partnerships with the private sector.
During the Conclave, the Chief Minister's Micro Finance Initiative was also launched to encourage credit for carrying out economic activities, for which an amount of Rs. 65 crore has been earmarked, Rio said.
“We would like to encourage our young people to be successful entrepreneurs, and create unicorns out of startups towards which we have setup Entrepreneur Development Centers in Schools and Colleges, and have 5 incubators which have 59 registered startups creating 300 plus employments,” Rio said.
We want our talented youth and entrepreneurs to not only explore opportunities within the state but also look beyond the borders of the state, the CM added.
