Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, DECEMBER 10
During the ‘ungodly hours’ between Monday midnight and the wee hours of Tuesday, unidentified miscreants torched, and reduced to ashes, DMC toll gates at Burma Camp and Thahekhu village before turning their attention to the DMC main office at Marwari Patti.The miscreants threw flames, reportedly bottled kerosene/petrol missiles, which led to the destruction of the toll gates, and partial damage to a section of Dimapur Municipal Council main office.
One of the DMC employees manning the toll gate in Burma Camp received minor burn injuries while in Thahekhu village, a pan shop located adjacent to where the DMC toll gate had once stood, was also reduced to ashes.
Following the shocking incident(s), the DMC Employees Association on Tuesday afternoon announced that it has decided to “cease work” from December 11 onwards until the “culprits” are brought to book.
General Secretary of DMC Employees Association, T Revo Anar told a press conference that incident(s) occurred on the night when the department of Urban Development had announced a fresh list if lessees authorized to collect DMC tolls.
The DMC employees contended that in view of the tussle between separate sets of lessees seeking work orders to collect DMC tolls, “the court” had already decreed that the same should hence be executed solely by the office of the DMC.
“Right on the day when the department announced a fresh list, this incident happened. We are not pointing fingers at anyone but we demand that the fresh list (issued on December 9) by the Commissioner and Secretary of Urban Development be cancelled,” said one of the officials.
Until their demands are met, the employees warned, the DMC office will remain closed. This is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the civic body of Nagaland’s only commercial district.
Police sources on Tuesday evening, however, said that they were yet to receive any report on the incident.
