Reacting to the alleged involvement of chief minister Neiphiu Rio’s son in a road scam under the Mechanical department as claimed by opposition leader Chingwang Konyak, the chief minister’s secretariat said allegations, if any, must be supported with concrete evidence.
Terming Konyak’s claim as an outcome of the “frustrated mind” of the Nagaland Congress in the aftermath of their defeat in the Rajya Sabha election, the CM’s secretariat in a press release said the opposition leader’s statement further described “his leadership qualities as he seems to be engulfed in jealousy and envy.”
The release stated that the Nagaland Road Project was initiated and pursued by some prominent leaders of the Nagaland Congress, who managed to get the project sanctioned by the Planning Commission during the fag end of 2006-07 under one-time ACA of the Planning Commission, in lieu of three other projects.
It said though the State government had written twice to the Planning Commission protesting the project, the Commission expressed its inability to consider the State government’s request for restoration of the original proposed schemes at the cost of Nagaland Road Project.
The government had to reluctantly allow the road project to be implemented since the Commission had even gone to the extent of saying that if the government did not want to implement the project, then the commission would withdraw the project along with the fund already paid to the account of the State government, the release added.
It further pointed out that the minister in-charge of R&B and parliamentary secretary in-charge of Mechanical during the implementation of the entire project, were presently Congress members and that the Congress was fully aware of the fact.
“These above mentioned facts point out that the Congress had manipulated the sanction in Delhi and moreover since the project was implemented under the previous R&B minister and Mechanical parliamentary secretary who are now in the Congress, it is actually the Congress who should be fully aware of the details and they should come out openly with the truth instead of pointing unjustified allegations at others,” the release said.
Meanwhile, the Mechanical Department, Kohima through its chief engineer PWD, Tsungdensangba has clarified that the department had not taken up any road projects.
Sunday, July 27, 2025