Eastern Mirror: Dimapur: Thursday, August 17, 2017.
The Kohima
bench of the Guwahati High Court is stated to have observed during a recent
hearing that Nagaland’s department of Roads & Bridges ought to “wake up and
restore the condition of road and bridges in Nagaland.”
The
information was contained in a press release issued by the Nagaland Tribes
Council (NTC) on Tuesday. Besides information combed out through the Right to
Information (RTI) mechanism already publicised, the press release included a
few more of newer ones.
‘The Gauhati
high Court, Kohima bench heard the 1st petition on R&B (department) today,
the 16th of August, 2017,’ the NTC informed. ‘The court heard the learned
council Advocate NM Jamir and on the interim directed the department of R&B
to start implementation of the projects with the money drawn so far. The court
maintained that the department of R&B should wake up and restore the
condition of road and bridges in Nagaland.’
The
developmental activities in Nagaland have come to a standstill not due to
non-allocation of funds from the central government, the organisation stated.
According to
the NTC, not less than ‘Rs.2355 crore, 38 lakh, and 64,000’ was drawn and
utilised fully by 11 departments “purely for public distributions and
infrastructural projects excluding departmental and establishment expenditures”
even during the last one year, from April 2016 to March 2017, the press release
asserted.
The NTC
expressed serious concern that an “opposition less government” in Nagaland
could bring ‘so much destruction and devastation to the system of governance
where there is no more restriction or rules to be observed in the utilisation
of funds.’ It has ‘made free’ for the elected representatives in connivance
with bureaucrats to “burgle every sanction of money for public welfare.”
The
politicians in authority and bureaucrats have teamed up to “loot the state
exchequer, what one can think will be left for the welfare of the common man,”
the organisation lamented.
Here, the
organisation lamented that in spite of the “highest degree of corruption,”
there was none to raise a voice for the public on the floor of the house “since
60 MLAs belong to ruling government and in absence of opposition, one or two
NGOs and few concerned individuals are crying foul over the anti-people
activities in various departments.”
These voices
have failed to deter the authorities from looting public money, the NTC
declared.
The only
option for the concerned citizens is to seek justice from the court of law
through PIL, it stated. The NTC has informed that two citizens ST Yapang and
Odi Jamir volunteered to shoulder the job of filling PILs against 11 government
departments ‘that has drawn crore on money without execution of works in the
fields.’
Data was
provided by the departments out of the RTI, the NTC stated. The organisation
has expressed profound appreciation to the two social activists, calling their
voluntary efforts for the suffering masses ‘rare and remarkable.’ The NTC has
expressed supports to their endeavour and declared to “stand by them till justice
is delivered to the suffering masses.”
A series of
11 PILs has been filed before the Gauhati High Court, Kohima bench by the two
activists.
The
departments against which the PILs were filed are PWD (Roads & Bridges );
Department of Social Welfare; Department of School Education; Food and Civil
Supplies; Department of Rural Development, PHE, Planning and Coordination
Department, Home Department(Police); Irrigation & Flood Control; Department
of Health and Family Welfare; and Urban Development Department.
.JPG)
.JPG)
