Nagaland busy debating non-issues: Dr SC Jamir

April 24, 2023 96 Views No Comment

Urges all stakeholders to uphold the sanctity of State Assembly

Dimapur, April 24 (MExN): Former Chief Minister and ex-Governor, Dr SC Jamir has called the current debate around the Urban Local Body (ULB) elections as ‘non-issues’ and criticised the political leadership of mixing governance with ‘cheap populism.’

To this end, he posed whether the tussle over what is being touted as ULB elections was justified when the concept itself is not clear and resources are minuscule compared to other states and called for pondering “honestly where we actually stand.”

To drive his point, Dr Jamir cited the case of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation when he was serving as Governor of Odisha and compared it with Chümoukedima, his present residence.

The Corporation had a total area of 186.89 sq km with 8,55,535 population and 67 corporators with revenue receipt of Rs 395 crore and expenditure of Rs 379 crore (2019-20) while Chümoukedima has 11 wards and total area of -135,12,341 sq metre or 0.000135 square kilometres with ‘nil’ resource, he maintained.

In a veiled attack on the political leadership, the former Chief Minister further asserted that “some people mix up governance with populism’ implying creation of ‘mini districts’ as one such action.

He reminded that Nagaland originally had only three districts – Kohima, Mokokchung and Tuensang and later opted for seven which looked reasonable for long. Accordingly, he opined that ‘15 districts or mini-districts’ appeared to have been created “just to satisfy parochial and tribal feelings” rather than for governance purposes, terming the decisions “ill-advised political leadership.”

Meanwhile, he further pointed out on how the Nagaland’s political status and arrangements were made according to ground realities over the years. The enactment of Village and Area Council Act, based on the traditional village functioning, was cited as one such action after the Statehood.

However, the Padma Bhushan awardee noted many finer aspects of politics and governance are not understood today. “The government of the day in Kohima is perhaps clueless on how to run the administration.

According to him, a ‘blunder’ was made with regard to the ULB polls in 2016-17 while an opportunity was wasted to explain the special political rights of Nagaland in present the legal case pertaining to the municipal bodies in the Supreme Court in 2022.

“If the Chief Minister of a State Government does not have the maturity to gauge public sentiment, there is something seriously erroneous,” he maintained, stressing that State Government should have acted as a benevolent guardian of a village or a large family in the contentious ULBs issue.

However, Dr Jamir asserted that some Naga leaders have confused patriotism and duty of governance with selfish goals of one or two individuals, highlighting how ‘they appease a few organisations by creating new districts, encouraged pressure groups to rush to Delhi for splitting Nagaland, and repeal a law in the Assembly to appease tribal bodies, when the matter was sub judice before the apex court.

Given the situation and circumstances, he underscored the need for the State Government to appoint an expert committee to study all issues in-depth and prepare a feasible and workable model of urban bodies.

Dr Jamir also urged all stakeholders to uphold the sanctity of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, the only competent authority to enact laws for the State, and let the elected government work out what is best for the people of Nagaland.

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https://morungexpress.com/memory-musings-and-whats-our-undoing-nagas-are-busy-debating-non-issues