Dimapur, July 1 (MExN): The once-shining Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) has all but landed Nagaland into a ‘debt trap,’ says the Nagaland Congress, reiterating the opposition’s long-held contention that the State is now headed for a financial guillotine. The Congress launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s government, just falling short of calling it a liar.
The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) issued a statement today elaborating on issues concerning the State Plan of Rs. 3, 500 which the opposition implied was designed only to feed vested interests in the DAN coterie and muddle up the State’s Plan with that of parochial interests such as the eastern areas.’
“The DAN government has miserably failed to manage the State’s finances. It has landed the State into huge debt trap. The people of Nagaland need to vote out the DAN government before it is too late,” the NPCC stated in its press release.
Compared to the younger States’ State Plans such as Manipur’s (Rs. 3, 500 crore) and Meghalaya’s (Rs. 3, 939 crore), there’s ‘nothing to really cheer about the State’s approved plan outlay of Rs. 2, 300 for 2012-13, the Congress stated. “Reading closely between the lines of the budget speech 2012-13 delivered by Shri Neiphiu Rio, the Chief Minister of Nagaland who also holds the finance portfolio, any educated layman with a little background knowledge on finances can judge that the much hype about budget speech was more of a report card than a realistic estimate,” the NPCC stated. The Congress also mentioned the CAG’s report for the year 2011 which has “slammed the culture of re-appropriation of budgets which it stated reflects unrealistic preparation of budget.”
A 10% step up from Rs. 1, 810 crore for 2011-12 reflected a “stereotype budget preparation, lack of vision and new ideas” and the meager hike implicitly displayed the DAN government’s planning deficit,” the Congress said. “Neiphiu Rio had stated that the budget 2012-13 will be closing with a cumulative deficit of `695.59 crore. By simple arithmetic, it means this amount will be deducted at source from the Plan money. That means the State Plan outlay of `2000 crore (`300 crore being special package for ENPO districts) will be reduced to `1304.41 crore only.” The State’s own tax and non-tax revenue receipt of `493.80 crore as projected for the FY 2012-13 can’t even cover the salaries and wages, leave alone filling the deficit gap, the NPCC stated.
The Congress also referred to Nagaland’s loan burden.
“The State budget for FY 2012-13 projected a meager receipt of `3.82 crore from recovery of its own loans and advances. Past experiences showed that the capital receipts mobilized in the form of loans from financial institutions and open market loans at exorbitant rates of interest were not utilized for revenue generating projects but invested on fixed assets to the comfort and luxury of few and sacrificing the majority common people.”
The DAN government’s financial position according to the Congress is: A negative balance of Rs. 695.59 crore; outstanding loan of Rs. 643.74 crore from all sources and that the State is paying about Rs. 60 crore per annum as interest to the loans. “In other words, the sum total of these figures proved that the DAN Govt. has created a total liability of about `1400 crore. Should this liabilities are to be met from the State’s approved Plan outlay of 2012-13, the State is to content with a meager balance of `600 crore. Development activities will come to a grinding halt and the DAN government, as usual, will be begging for special financial package from the GoI sooner than expected.”
On “special package” for eastern areas
The Congress also called ‘unfortunate’ that the DAN government had gone ahead asking for a ‘special financial package’ of Rs. 300 crore as the first installment without taking the confidence of the Eastern Naga People’s Organization (which rejected the special package even before the finalization of the Plan).
“It appears that the chief minister and his team during the Plan discussion with the PCI had mixed up the ‘special plan’ with the State plan without further consulting the MHA. It is obvious now that DAN government will take full liberty to utilize the special package of `300 crore. The very act of bringing in the special plan under the State plan had undermined the ENPO’s demand,” the NPCC said. The chief minister has “mixed up the special plan with the State’s normal plan. Posterity will remember him as the architect of Nagaland’s disintegration should the worst happen.”
