The last more than one week in Nagaland with the disruption in power supply has been quite an experience and no doubt every one of us will have a story to tell about how we all feel. If we can take the liberty through this column, there are many lessons that we ought to learn. At one level the power crisis tells us how fortunate many of us are, to be blessed with such facility of lights and electricity (however poor the service may be) when we compare with the less fortunate people in the interior, far flung areas of our State where having regular power supply is but a luxury. So perhaps this one week and more of hardship that we are facing should be a humbling experience and therefore we can use this time to sympathize with those who are yet to enjoy the fruits of development, maybe the poorest of the poor. People are suffering because of the long hours of load shedding and normal life has been affected to a great extent especially for the common people. It is also somewhat surprising that ever since the major power crisis began, the concern Minister did not find it fitting to issue even a small statement, which would have been appreciated by the public.
At another level, this should probably be the best time for our government, policy makers, Ministers etc. to actually feel the heat literally on what has gone wrong. In this case, perhaps the blame should not go to our government because they had no control over two major towers collapsing somewhere in West Bengal. However the present crisis is a good time to see where we are as a State in terms of meeting our basic need of electricity. Have we failed somewhere along the way in the last few decades since statehood? We speak of great stride being made in the area of development. Not to forget that huge amount of funds have been given but what is the state of even our basic infrastructure—road, water supply, electricity. Perhaps it’s time for the government to give priority to some of the concern departments dealing with basic infrastructure like Roads & Bridges, Health, PHE and Power. Unless we have proper road connectivity, regular power supply, clean drinking water and access to basic health care, how can we expect other people to come and invest in our State?
It is quite interesting to note that our Power Department does not even find a mention in the official Nagaland government website. Such kind of apathy could well explain the sorry state of affairs in one of the few revenue earning department that we have in Nagaland. Obviously much more needs to be done to improve the Power sector in our State and the blue print for this has to come from our policy makers. While we need to be self sufficient in power generation, at the same time we need to seriously explore alternate sources of energy. Perhaps renewable source of energy from solar power should be given a try. For this, those who run the government including the Ministers, they will have to change their mindset and habit towards quality control and proper utilization of funds meant for development. If we want to improve the Power sector or explore sustainable technology like solar power, we should be prepared to put the money in the right places—towards investment in development projects rather than diverting or siphoning off funds for self enrichment. Branding ourselves as the Land of Festival or marketing the eco-tourism and natural resource potential of Nagaland will come to nothing if we fail to deliver peace, good governance and the basics in the development index.
