Hitting back at the chief minister Neiphiu Rio over his remark on Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) that NPF had raised its voice only now and remained silent when the Bill was introduced in July 2016, the two NPF legislators –– BS Nganlang Phom, MLA 49 Tamlu A/C, and T Torechu, MLA 60 Kiphire Pungro A/C–– Tuesday said it was “unprincipled” on the part of the chief minister to blame the NPF for not raising the matter in 2016 because he was the lone MP of NPF representing Nagaland then.
In a joint statement, BS Nganlang Phom and T Torechu said that Rio should have educated the NPF party in the State and Naga people in general on the matter instead of pointing his finger at the NPF party.
They claimed that the chief minister sought the attention of the centre for review of the Bill only after the opposition NPF raised the issue.
NPF legislators said Neiphiu Rio as former Lok Sabha MP should understand the proceedings of parliament, and place before the public domain for debate on the ramifications of the bill on the Nagas and take a clear stand on the controversial Bill because after it is passed in the Rajya Sabha, the matter cannot be reviewed.
Further, they also queried as to why the current Lok Sabha MP Tokheho Yepthomi did not raise his objection in the parliament before passing the said bill in the Lok Sabha.
The two MLAs maintained that the Naga people need to understand why the chief minister and incumbent Lok Sabha MP kept silent and woke up only after passing the bill in the House of the People.
“Will the CM and MP (LS) learn that the bill is ‘Against the Interest of Nagas’ only after it is passed in the Upper House and becomes a law?” they questioned.
Blame CM for mismanagement of Rs.185.09 cr
The two NPF legislators also alleged that the chief minister, as minister in-charge of rural development in the state, was responsible for mismanagement of Rs.185.09 crore, which was released as additional grant under Niti Aayog on November 8, 2017.
They claimed that the fund allocated by the high level committee (HLC), which was constituted with chief secretary as the chairman on December 13, 2017, was ignored and sub-allocations were made unsystematically in total violation of the guidelines.
NPF MLAs said that the fate of four communitized departments (School Education, Power, PHED and H&FW) were at stake due to the “unilateral decision taken by minister in-charge.”
According to Nganlang and Torechu, the four departments had submitted their proposals with the schemes as per the requirement of the respective departments which was approved by Niti Aayog.
Accordingly, they said HLC had accorded sanction as per the requirement of the departments.
However, MLAs said in total contravention of the guidelines the allocations were drastically reduced without consulting the concerned departments and HLC.
To top it all, they claimed Rs.96 crore allocated by the HLC as Grant-in-Aid (GiA) for 74 RD blocks covering 1238 VDBs in 11 districts of Nagaland, was parked though the same was released by the finance department in the month of March, 2018. They added that out of 11 districts only Peren and Dimapur districts have received.
While public funds are parked and kept on hold for several months without any valid reasons at the whims and fancies of few vested individuals, the MLAs said Nagas could “expect nothing more but disaster, socially, economically and politically.”
