80-85% of high court building completed, says Nagaland CM Rio

Kohima: Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Tuesday said 80-85% of the new High Court building at Meriema is completed.

He pointed out that the High Courts for Meghalaya and Manipur were fully funded by the Central government but Nagaland did not receive any help and is being constructed by the state fund.

Rio stated this while delivering the concluding remarks on the general budget discussion on the last day of the first session of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA).

Rio said to facilitate timely completion of the new High Court building, INR 30 crore has been provided under special assistance during 2022-23 based on the work progress.

 ‘In the midst of our struggle, the CBI probed it and the case was under investigation; it delayed the progress, including the COVID-19 pandemic. But now the work is in full progress and the completion of the High Court building is about 80-85 % completed,’ he said.

He asserted that the state has also pursued with the Centre a separate high court for Nagaland.

However, Rio maintained that if the constitution is amended for a separate high court, the old court at Minister’s Hill has been renovated and is ready for occupation. He informed that the old chief minister’s residential complex will be allotted for the chief justice of Nagaland and three minister’s quarters for the judges.

‘Even without completion of the new high court building, the old high court can function and is only waiting for constitutional amendment,’ he added.

Petroleum Sector

On Oil and Natural Gas exploration and extraction, Rio informed that he had several discussions with the Assam Chief Minister. He subsequently had meetings even with the Union Home Minister, where the latter insisted on resolving the boundary disputes by sharing the royalties from the Disturbed Area Belt (DAB).

The royalties would be from sector A, B and C, he said but the CM objected to this proposal. Hence on  insistence of Nagaland, Ministry of Home Affairs and MOPNG, Assam agreed to share royalties in DAB areas ABC on a 50:50 basis for licenses already granted by Assam.

“We have also demanded that this dispensation should cover D, E, and F sectors of DAB as well. In case it is not possible to agree to this arrangement, we have also agreed to keep the royalty amounting in ESCROW accounts till such time the matter is amicably resolved.

“We have also taken a stand that first the matter in DAB areas should be resolved as Nagaland is already losing a huge amount of revenue,” said the chief minister and subsequently the MOU was signed on the insistence of the Centre.

He mentioned that 36 oil fields were identified from the DAB belt; the oil fields are under Nuiland district — Pihekhu, Tokishe and Nikihe villages are on the Naga-occupied areas and Changpang, Khopanala, Hezukhu, and Toshezu are inside Nagaland areas.

He said out of 36 oil fields, 33 are inside Assam-occupied land. ‘All these years, they (Assam) have been enjoying all the royalties and because of the recognition of ownership, the same 50:50 will be shared,’ Rio stated.

Both states have also agreed to resolve the border issue outside the court with the involvement of indigenous people in the area, he added.

The matter regarding resumption of oil exploration in the rest of the state will be taken up later for which an MOU is to be signed between the state and Central governments, whereby the rights of the state under Article 371(A) are adequately protected. The comments of the Central government and the Advocate General are awaited at present on this matter, said Rio while exuding hope that it will be resolved.

Closing deficit

Meanwhile, Rio expressed delight that the deficit was brought down to INR 1374.17 crore, the closing  accumulated deficit for the financial year 2023-24 .

He shared that  the state government has released the CSS backlog of INR 728 crore including those kept in CD an amount of INR 150 crore  totaling INR 878.57 crore.

Rio said with all the savings and the improvement in the taxes, state deficit for the end of 2023-24 is only INR 40 crore.

He asserted when the state fund improves, the government will also give priority for enhancement of the Local Areas Development Fund (LADF).

Education sector rationalisation soon

With regard to the suggestion of appointing teachers to address shortfall under EAP programmes, the chief minister said that the ongoing Lighthouse Project funded by World Bank under the School Education department is mainly for governance and management of school eco systems, and there is no scope for appointment of teachers under this scheme.

However, he maintained that the department of School Education will undertake a rationalisation exercise very soon to address the issue of teacher shortages.

Further, he maintained that many of the schools have teacher shortage due to absenteeism and assured that this issue will be addressed through the introduction of the “Teacher Attendance Monitoring App’ during the current year.

Meanwhile, he stated that the government is aware of some schools having nil enrollments, single digit registration, while some have more teachers than students.

Improvement in finances, budgets

The chief minister also pointed out that in the last few years, the quality of the state’s finance has shown substantive improvement. Despite the damage to the economy caused by the COVID -19 pandemic, the Budget of 2022-23 showed a positive balance of INR 150.30 crore in the Current Account Transactions.

Even in the current budget for the year 2023-24, there is a positive balance of INR 60 crore in the Current Account Transactions. Yet, he stated that due to the high withdrawals in GPF, the current transactions show a minus balance of INR 40 crore.

Completion of projects

Meanwhile, in order to make the main athletics stadium of the Multi Disciplinary Sports Complex (MDSC) at Dimapur functional, a detailed project report of INR 177 crore was prepared, out of which INR 20 crore has already been provided under special assistance during 2022-23, Rio said, adding that the state government will consider more allocation of funds in the coming days based on work progress and fund availability.

With regard to the two multi-level parking lots in Kohima at Old NST and Old Medical Directorate, he informed that these have been taken up under Kohima Smart City Development Limited, and are ready for inauguration.

Performance of all departments to be reviewed quarterly

Taking serious note of the non-performing departments and government employees, Rio said the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) along with the planning machinery will have a quarterly review of all the departments, particularly those departments that are receiving Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).

He exuded hope that all the departments will be more proactive in the days ahead, adding that the Finance department “is ready” to give more state matching share to those departments that can immediately implement and submit utilisation certificates (UC), and does not delay the file for releasing the funds.

Committee for human-animal conflicts to be set up

Noting the issue raised by the MLA of the 40th Bhandari AC, Achumbemo Kikon with regard to human-animal conflict, Rio said this has become a yearly affair and he is in touch with the department.

He maintained that the government will set up a committee to find a way out on how to handle the issue, which he termed as a ‘ difficult job’ as elephants permanently reside in Assam but during floods and dry seasons come looking for greener pastures often leading to destruction.

On the issues raised by Kuzholuzo Nienu, Rio admitted that he omitted JD (U) in his budget speech relating to the support extended by all political parties including the Independent MLAs. He stated that this was due to an inadvertent omission, which was sincerely regretted.

He maintained that the suggestions for the Finance department to brief the members on financial issues, was a welcome suggestion, adding that the department is prepared to brief the members of the House in case they so desire, after the close of the financial year.

He reiterated that the Lok Sabha Speaker and Lok Sabha officials will also be having some orientation programmes for the MLAs, particularly the new members.

Meanwhile, he stated that the suggestion of amending laws to re-designate Advisors as ‘Ministers of State’ will have to be discussed and legal opinions have to be sought. He pointed out that when downsizing came, the state used ‘Parliamentary Secretary’ which was struck down by the court and ‘Advisors’ had to be used.

He said a small state like Nagaland has so many tribes and each tribe needs to be represented in the cabinet. However, it cannot accommodate all the tribes as there is a Chief Minister and 11 other ministers in the cabinet, adding that the issue can be discussed but it is beyond the purview of the state.

Rio said the Advisor advises the department and even if they have written anything, they (Advisors) write on a buff sheet and not in the file sheet as ‘Office of Profit’ may invite disqualification.