Kohima: The Rising People’s Party (RPP) has demanded that President’s Rule should be imposed in Nagaland. The Rising People’s Party led by the party president and 6 other members including the general secretary and Rising Youth president met the Governor of Nagaland Thursday day and submitted a memorandum in this regard. The RPP said it had a very positive interaction with the Governor and many off the record issues were discussed as well.
In the memorandum, the RPP said, “Thanks to unabated corruption over the years, there is now a severe financial crunch in the state warranting financial emergency declaration”. It also said, “Ours is a salaried economy. When the salaries of government servants who account for almost 90% percent of the state’s entire workforce including teachers and the police force is withheld, the scale of the disaster can be imagined”. According to the RPP, this phenomenon is not going to end soon. It also said that, for the last twenty years in a row, successive state governments have been presenting ‘deficit budgets’ with the latest number being minus Rs 2212.74 crore, the highest till date. The systemic corruption in the state will ensure that the trend continues unless the President of India intervenes and makes course correction, the RPP memorandum mentioned.
Case in point, the RPP said it unearthed a multi-crore fuel adulteration scam in the state on April 23, 2022. The monthly Nagaland quota of SK Oil – approx. 4.8 lakh litres – issued under the PDS which is meant for the poor beneficiaries is instead diverted to racketeers, the RPP alleged. The memorandum added that the racketeers supply the adulterated fuel to all the fuel stations in the state and even to Manipur and upper Assam.
The RPP then said that even the post-matric scholarships meant for the almost 40,000 beneficiary students of Nagaland are not spared by the government.
“The latest CAG report has highlighted all the cases of fund misappropriation in the state and we need not state further,” the RPP stated.
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It then said, “Most importantly, the so-called ‘Opposition-less’ government is against the very concept of parliamentary democracy, and by default against the constitution of India”. It added that the the people voted for a robust democratic set-up with its checks and balances but “instead what we now have is an autocratic government”.
According to the RPP memorandum, important money bills involving crores of public money are moved in the Assembly for consideration and passed unanimously, without any discussion or debate.
With no Opposition in the Assembly, the present government in Nagaland has ‘absolute power’. This situation has led to ‘absolute corruption’ with the result that there is now a severe financial crunch, the RPP also added.
Time and again, according to the RPP, all the legislators of the present UDA coalition have expressed their desire to step down in order to facilitate Naga solution. It further said that the ‘Opposition-less’ government is also aggressively pursuing the issue through its Core Committee on Naga Political issue, comprising of NDPP, BJP, NPF and Independent MLA. “Given the unanimity among the ruling MLAs to step down and pave a way for Naga solution, the Rising People’s Party is of the strong opinion that the wisdom of the 13th NLA members cannot be discarded easily and therefore the imposition of President’s Rule in the state is the only way forward,” it further added.
NNN
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