NPCC calls for consensus on Foothills Road issue, underscores NFRCC’s role

March 3, 2025 6 Views No Comment

Kohima, March 3 (MExN): The Nagaland Congress today ‘strongly’ urged the concerned authorities to find a way out of the “unfortunate impasse” over the Foothills Road project.

This should be done “preferably and rightly with the active involvement and stewardship of the NFRCC as well as other similarly affected civil societies, rather than without,” stated the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) in a press statement.

The NPCC issued the statement after noting that the “initial worrying atmosphere” created following the refusal of two construction firms to sign ‘implementation agreements’ with the Nagaland Foothills Road Coordination Committee (NFRCC) seems to be taking a turn for the worse, with a “public war of words” between the NFRCC and the state’s Public Works (R&B) Department.

The discord, if not addressed immediately, could very well end up imperilling the implementation of the Foothills Road Project, dashing the hopes of many people deeply invested in this historic initiative, it pointed out.

The NPCC also contended that the need of the hour is the initiation of corrective measures based on consensus-building exercises with all stakeholders, rather than what it termed the department’s “attempts to disown and delink the NFRCC from the project” as an “uninvolved and uninvested third party.”

Underscoring the NFRCC’s involvement, the NPCC stated that the former’s pivotal role in the realisation of the ‘unprecedented collective people’s project’ over the years is well acknowledged and mandated by the people of Nagaland.

Any effort to take away the moral stakeholdership of the NFRCC from this endeavour would not only be untenable but also self-defeating, it asserted.

The NPCC also highlighted that the ‘implementation agreement,’ which is at the centre of the present impasse, clearly establishes that it is coming from a place of constructiveness and accountability to ensure quality control and timely completion, it added.

The NFRCC’s insistence on the adoption of the implementation agreement by the contractors is all the more validated by the many instances of unfinished and unexecuted projects by the government of the day, the NPCC alleged.

Thus, it urged the concerned authorities to find a way out with the involvement of the NFRCC and other similarly affected civil societies.