Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 26
Notwithstanding representative Zeliangrong Baudi’s (Hoho) consensus choice of Jalukie as the new district headquarter of Peren district, the Government of Nagaland has selected New Peren as the new headquarter despite earlier assurance that a consensus area, if decide upon, would be selected. This decision selecting New Peren was taken at a Cabinet meeting held Tuesday April 25 Kohima, highly-reliable sources from the government informed.
According to the highly-placed sources, on condition of anonymity, the Cabinet has in principle selected New Peren as the new district headquarters. “The Cabinet which held a meeting yesterday has formally decided to select New Peren instead of Jalukie although Jalukie was proposed by the Zeliangrong Baudi,” the source informed. According to the source the reasons for selecting New Peren was due to ongoing conflicts among landowners in the mentioned area which the government feared would hamper creation of Jalukie as a feasible headquarter.
Another reason that was cited was that “the people are divided on which site to choose and is creating lots of problem for us” and the Government is not in a position to drag the issue, a year old now, further. “The landowners do not seem to be agreeing to the land terms and other modalities involved in the creation of a district headquarter. New Peren seem to have lesser amount of problems” the sources added. The Government does not want to impose any conditions in that respect. Still it was facing much difficulty due to constant “squabbling” in contract evaluation and distribution, disbursement/allotment of developmental undertakings and as such, it was added.
Another government official, also on condition of anonymity, said that the state government was now “much wiser” from “the Nagaland University experience” which currently is witnessing much disorder. “The Nagaland Cabinet has although selected New Peren during its (Tuesday) meeting, an official declaration would be made soon” the source said.
It was also informed that a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would have to be signed after all necessary procedurals are met. This, the official said, gave “the hope” that the decision is not final until a MoU is signed.
It may be mentioned that the Zeliangrong Baudi had submitted a proposal of Jalukie to the state government as the consensus site as Peren District’s new headquarter. Last year the government instituted a Site Verification Committee to assess and identify one from among the proposed sites, including New Peren, Lamhai Dungki and Jalukie.
The verification which was carried out July 2005 had also, according to knowledgeable sources, had also noted New Peren as a possible Headquarter. However Jalukie town scored full marks implying the possibility that it should be selected as headquarter for Peren itself. The committee’s report had observed that Jalukie town had more or less an established urban infrastructure; that it had two colleges, four high schools, a State Bank of India branch and a Co-operative Bank functioning in it.
Further, viewing that Jalukie was a fast developing service town, it stated that if the contiguous areas could be acquired, a mini-Secretariat could well be established to house district offices while another ‘chunk’ of land could be acquired for departmental quarters to reduce expenditure towards the establishment of the proposed headquarter.
Finally, the Committee’s report added that development cost in Jalukie, located in the plains would also be much cheaper and cost-effective comparing to potential investment into developmental works in the hilly areas of the first two sites proposed. It is pertinent to mention that the site verification officials, Mikah Lomi DC Peren, Ken Keditsu Chief Town Planner, J Arem Aier Joint Development Commissioner and K.Theunuo EE Commissioner’s Office, visited the proposed sites on July 2 2005.
Curiously, the selection Committee reportedly could not approve New Peren Kezanglwa earlier as a possible HQ since it was a disputed area while two sections of Peren were currently divided over selecting Lamhai Dungki. Peren is about 139 kms away from the State Capital Kohima and 84 Kms from Dimapur while Jalukie is 127 Kms off from Kohima.
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