Nagaland chief minister, TR Zeliang, on Monday said that importing labourers, builders and illegal immigrants from outside was “dangerous trend in ruining our economy.”
Addressing the 3rd VDB conference cum mission Antyodaya Gram Samridhi Evam Swachchata Pakhwada (village well-being and cleanliness fortnight) Monday at SIRD Auditorium here, the chief minister said Nagas should not blame the government over the huge presence of the illegal immigrants, but blame “ourselves because we brought them”.
Stating that government was laying huge emphasis on skill development of women and youth, the chief minister said availability of skilled work force would facilitate them to set up micro enterprises in villages and help in sustainable development. Skill development in various trades needed to be taken up in all the districts, Zeliang said, adding that through skill development, tangible changes could be brought about in the village economy. Maintaining that lack of skilled work force to a great extent has limited the scope of development in villages, the chief minister said that this was the reason the state government had declared 2016 as year of “Construction workers”.
Zeliang said that all the government programmes were intended to achieve and take care of different facets of rural development. In this regard, he said equal importance and priority must therefore be given to each programme to bring about holistic development, which would go a long way in bringing about positive transformation and sustainable development of villages.
To harness the best possible outcomes through successful implementation of various programmes, the chief minister said it was imperative that all stakeholders of rural development were adequately trained through capacity building.
Further, he said that capacity building programme and government mission should move together to make it a sustainable mission.
On checking corruption, he asked the public to advise or suggest proper system to check corruption. Zeliang said that without strong system put in place, no matter how much funds were poured in, it would flow with water. He maintained that proper system alone can change the corruption.
On road connectivity in the state, the chief minister said public also needed to raise their voice against the contractors who were allotted for certain project but did not construct the roads.
In this regard, he said a consultative meet has been convened with all the stakeholders on October 10, 2017.
Informing that the Centre has approved seven National Highways in the state, the chief minister said the state government intended to make the best connectivity across the state.
In this regard, the chief minister appealed to the VDB leaders to talk to the landowners not to obstruct the work during construction claiming land ownership.
Dwelling on the existence of VDB for the last 41 years, the chief minister asked the VDBs to recall the year of VDB establishment and see where it was heading. He added that if village economy was poor, the strength of state and country would also become poor.
The chief minister also urged the Rural Development department and VDBs to seriously ponder on how to attain the desired level of development as entrusted for development of rural areas.
On implementation of MGNREGA, the chief minister said it had direct impact on the livelihoods of the poor by way of providing much needed employment to poor rural households and simultaneously creating durable assets in the villages.
Therefore, Zeliang said focus should be on how best the MGNREGA programme could be implemented to its advantage to reap optimal benefits by converging/ dovetailing with other programmes.
Lamenting that MGNREGA convergence has not been very encouraging, the chief minister said convergence of activities with horticulture, forest, land resources, roads & bridges and other allied departments must be taken up on priority based on the feasibility. He said every effort must be made to ensure successful implementation of those projects.
On the special convergence programme with horticulture department which undertook massive cultivation of Cardamom in 10 Districts apart from Dimapur in 2016-17, the chief minister said it should be the collective will and responsibility of all the VDBs to ensure that such innovative projects with focus on income generating activities were successfully implemented.
He also informed the VDB to ensure that social audit were conducted at regular intervals in all the villages to bring transparency and accountability in the implementation of various programmes.
Minister RD and REPA, EE Pangteang, in his address advised the block level officers to assist the beneficiaries in the banking system so they were not deprived of their due share.
Also, Pangteang said that VDB being the core committee in the village must set good example and guide the other sister committees like the VEC, electricity, health to being holistic development in the villagers.
Special guest, chief secretary, Pankaj Kumar, in his address, said VDBs have Rs.82 crores in fixed deposit yet state government could provide only Rs. 3 crore as matching cash grant.
He said in view of the requirements of social economic development, it was important to increase the fix deposits to Rs. 1,000 crore at least by 2030 if not earlier.
On Swachhata, Kumar said each household should have proper toilets by October 2, 2019. He asserted that Nagaland must achieve this target and urged individuals and community to take responsibility of ownership.
He also laid an action plan for VDB till 2030, which includes focus on increasing the area under tree cover and the quality of tree cover by lengthening the jhum cycle.
The chief secretary also advocated on adopting improved farming methods in rearing of crops as well as animals to increase productivity and incomes and also to make full use of the international projects funded by IFAD, JICA and KFW.
Nagaland VDB association (NVDBA) president, Tohoshe Awomi, delivered greetings on the occasion. Eleven VDBs from 11 districts received best performing VDB in the district 2016-17. The programme was chaired by secretary to the government Kelei Zeliang.