Opposition NPF has gone for the jugular of the ruling PDA coalition government sensing that the issue over delay in release of Rs 96 crore as grant-in-aid (GIA) to village development boards (VDBs) could rattle the government.
NPF press bureau and its legislators– Vikheho Swu, Dr. Chumben Murry and Er. Picto– issued separate statements on the matter.
In a press note, NPF press bureau reacted sharply to the claim by Nagaland State Village Development Board Secretary Association (NSVDBSA) that grant-in-aid was released and kept in respective deputy commissioners’ (DC) bank accounts by saying that there was a gap between the delay in release of GiA and the claim by the Rural Development (RD) department that it was released in December 2018.
NPF reminded that the leader of opposition TR Zeliang had raised the issue on January 5 at a press conference at Dimapur after reports of non-receipt of the fund was authenticated from the DCs who were also VDB chairmen of their respective districts, viz, Dimapur, Peren and Mon. As reported, the party claimed that Peren DC had confirmed receipt of the fund only on January 9, and not in December 2018, which the RD department officials claimed.
The party urged the association to clearly state the facts for general comprehension rather than giving piece-meal press release that would only aggravate the issue and further confuse the public. NPF claimed that outgoing Dimapur DC too had confirmed that he had received the fund in batches, and not in a single demand draft on January 10, which had complicated the process of disbursement to the respective VDBs in the district. In Mon district too, the fund had been released only to some blocks after January 5 and not as claimed by NSVDBSA, the party alleged.
Further, according to the opposition party, the clarification and rebuttal by the RD department to Zeliang’s statement on the backlog years only corroborated its apprehension of the involvement of department’s officials, along with minister in-charge, in changing the High Level Committee’s (HLC) allocation.
When the statement of NPF Legislature Party’s leader was based on the records of HLC where the years were plainly written, the party asked how the department responsible for feeding data to the committee could contradict the years in question.
And the department’s contradictory statement only gave rise to a pertinent question whether it had given false data to the committee, the party added. Warning that the anomaly in managing GIA by the RD department could be just a “tip of the iceberg”, NPF legislator from Wokha Dr Chumben Murry urged governor PB Acharya to institute an impartial inquiry into the matter, while urging the RD department to immediately release the backlog of Wokha district.
In a press release, he claimed that interactions with VDB secretaries in Wokha revealed that though schemes were submitted since long, the district had not received GIA backlog.
Murry said parking money meant for development for a prolonged period was not acceptable, adding that the department owed an explanation to the people. He demanded to know from the department as to why allocation made to health & family welfare, school education, power, PHE, etc, departments by HPC headed by the chief secretary was ignored and curtailed and for what purpose.
Meanwhile, two opposition MLAs from Zunheboto district – Y Vikheho Swu and Er Picto Shohe – asserted that the entire controversy was a big jolt to the “callous” NDPP-led PDA government and a wakeup call for the Naga people.
They said the future of Nagaland looked grim, should this government continue to stoop so low as to even deprive the rural poor of the State of their basic due share.
The duo said NDPP’s slogan of “change is coming” was indeed here, but added that it was not the kind of change that the Nagas had desire.
They regretted that though it had been almost a year now since the PDA government assumed office, there had been no new scheme or any other benefit for Nagaland.
While asking the State government to work for the welfare of the Nagas and not against their interest, the two NPF MLAs also appealed to the department concerned to release GIA at the earliest to all the districts. Further delay in releasing would tantamount to snatching away the share of rural poor of the State, they added.
The two Zunheboto legislators further appealed to the people of Nagaland to speak out against the “inaction of this handicapped” PDA government on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. 2016. They said the Bill, which would become the biggest threat to indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland and the Northeast, was being passed without the slightest opposition from the State government.
“Is the PDA government an NDPP-led government or BJP-led government? The leadership of NDPP needs to ponder on its alliance and introspect on how the government is functioning and under whose direction and diktat,” the MLAs demanded.