Rising People’s Party (RPP) suggested that the Nagaland United Government (NUG) comprising of all legislators, should be renamed as Nagaland Consultative Government (NCG) by taking into the account, the number of committees and commissions formed and also holding endless number of consultative meetings since the current dispensation came to power.
RPP in a release listed 10 meetings – five consultative meetings, three cabinet sub-committee meetings, one review committee and one 15-member working group meetings – convened by the State government since 2019.
These include consultative meetings on CAB (January 30, 2019), peace talks and one solution (October 14, 2020), job reservation demand by ENSF (March 5, 2021), RIIN (April 16, 2021) and on ULB/reservation/RIIN/boundary (August 18, 2021), cabinet sub-committee meetings on Dimapur-Peren boundary issue headed by minister Pangyu Phom (2019), Dimapur-Peren boundary issue headed by deputy chief minister Y Patton (2021) and on job reservation (2021), review committee meeting on job reservation (August 2019) and 15-member working group on job reservation meeting (March 5, 2021).
RPP alleged that the formation of various committees and consultative meetings were all delay tactics to fool everyone. While none of the burning issues had been resolved, it said only the State exchequer seemed to be depleting at a fast pace.
Meanwhile, RPP pointed out that the August 18 consultative meeting which also discussed about women reservation in ULBs was not about women reservation per se but funds.
RPP said this fact cannot be denied because no women representatives were invited to the consultative meeting, the party pointed out.
In this regard, RPP alleged that the only agenda of the meeting was the State government’s insatiable desire to access funds of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). It said the fund amounting to several hundred crores of rupees could be accessed by holding ULB elections at the earliest, possibly by January or February, 2022 since ULB funds had been held up by the Central government since 2008. “Basically the ruling politicians want to create a war chest (funds) for the 2023 State Assembly elections by accessing the ULB funds,” the release stated.
RPP therefore maintained that the August 18 exercise was a fraud committed by the State government by disguising it as discussion on women reservation and others. It demanded that NUG should immediately rectify the mistake and apologise to the women of Nagaland and 14 tribes.