Chizokho Vero
Kohima | April 24
The All Nagaland Selected Entrepreneurs Association- (YOE) (ANSEA) today staged an agitation in protest against the government’s inaction to implement the “Year of Entrepreneur” programme for the 1000 selected entrepreneurs in the state. Staging a agitation in a peaceful manner in the office premises of the Directorate of Industries & Commerce here, the members carried placards and slogans— “Don’t eat our seed” “YOE- A mockery to Naga entrepreneurs,” “YOE- Year of embarrassment,” “Justice delayed is justice denied,” “Support the aspiring entrepreneurs of Nagaland,” “Stop delaying policy, it hinders development,” We want results not proposals,” “Year of Entrepreneur a total failure etc etc.
The Association said the agitation was called to demonstrate the frustration and resentment of the 1000 selected entrepreneurs against “ the snail-paced progress and government’s inaction” in implementing the YOE.” Later, ANSEA placed an eight point charter of demand before the state government in the form of statement of declaration made during the agitation today, signed by its President Kekhriesetuo Michael and Action Committee Convenor Temsumongba Sanglir.
It demanded that the Government of Nagaland’s programmes and components under the “Year of Entrepreneur’ for the 1000 selected entrepreneurs to establish Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, be made known to the selected entrepreneurs, coordinate with the financial institutions to finance the project of the selected entrepreneurs under the YOE, with government’s financial backing in the form of back-end subsidy of at least 35% of the total project cost of the entrepreneurs, as collateral for the loan, insure minimum rectification to the Detail Project Report (DRP) of viable enterprises submitted by the selected entrepreneurs (YEO).
It said that ANSEA rejected the first phase implementation schedule announced earlier vide Directorate of Industries & Commerce’s notification No. IND/YOE/1/2012, dated 15th Feb, 2012, as it could not be materialized, in spite of the department having assured ANSEA that the process will be completed before the end of the financial year 2011-12. In this, ANSEA urged the concerned department to recall and revoke the notification No. IND/YoE/1/2012, dated, 15th Feb,2012, and the subsequent selection list published thereafter.
“Henceforth, the YOE implementation, should be made for all the 1000 selected entrepreneurs in one single phase only,” another charter of demand said. It also asked to reimburse the Rs. 1000 realized by the Department for Industries & Commerce earlier from the 300 entrepreneurs selected under PMEGP, as fee to re-formulate their DPRs, “since the selection is considered null and void.”
It also demanded that ANSEA officials be included as member in any future arrangement made by the department to implement the YOE for the 1000 selected entrepreneurs for better coordination and proper implementation. Further, it demanded that implementation process of the YOE for the 1000 selected entrepreneurs be completed within a span of 30 days.
ANSEA further declared that, in the event of any untoward incident happens to any of the member of ANSEA,” the nodal department for implementation of the YOE, i.e, the department of Industries & commerce, shall be held responsible.”
ANSEA stated that under ‘Year of Entrepreneur,’ 1000 Naga entrepreneurs were selected and sent batch wise for capacity building training (Entrepreneurs Development Programme) from the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship at Guwahati and Dimapur from September 2010.
The Association stated that the authorities concern could neither declare their YOE package in black & white, nor update the already capacitated entrepreneurs about ‘what’s next’. In fact, it said, the concern authorities, having no clear-cut information from the government, asked the entrepreneurs to get their DPRs prepared as per PMEGP guidelines and submit it to their respective DICs. As such, all the entrepreneurs submitted their DPR and had waited for response from the government.
The Association said that a number of appeals have been made to the government to expedite the implementation of YOE for the 1000 selected entrepreneurs from various sources. However, there was no further response from the government. In this regard, it said, a memorandum containing charter of demand was served to the nodal department for implementation of YOE- Department of Industries and Commerce, with an ultimatum of 15 days to comply to the CoD. In response, the nodal department, expressing their inability to assist all the 1000 in one go, suggested to implement the YOE in phase wise manner and had assured that the first phase will be completed before the end of financial year 2011-2012 which ends on March 31, 2012 and the next phase by early part of the next financial year 2012-13.
“The first phase: 300 were selected under PMEGP (which the authorities says is an additional allocation exclusively for the YOE. But it was learnt from a reliable source that the 300 PMEGP was just a proposal sent to the Ministry of MSME, GoI, which is still awaiting approval from the Ministry), 50 under NIDC (which is not willing to shell out a loan of more than Rs. 2 lakhs), 50 under NABARD (which is yet to come up with the selection list) and 30 under NHHDC. And at the end of the “Year of Entrepreneur’ (31st March, 2012), the result is, not a single entrepreneur have so far received any assistance,” the Association said.
Stating that the government had already released crores of rupees as assistance under YOE to some organizations and several individuals, the Association, however stated that “not a single paisa have been made available to the bigger number (the 1000 entrepreneurs), which is viewed by ANSEA as ‘utter disregard’ to the selected entrepreneurs and ‘intolerably annoying.”
It also stated that ANSEA after having discussed and requested the nodal department, a number of times, to expedite the implementation process, which ultimately failed to keep-up with its assurance and commitment, decided to share and discuss the grievances with Chief Minister and hence sought an appointment for a meeting through the Chief Minister’s office on two different occasions. However, it said, ANSEA’s prayer proved futile, as it never received any response from the CMO.
Meanwhile, no untoward incident has been reported and normal function of the Directorate office has not been affected.
