Check gates closure not reflected in prices of goods, says Nagaland Congress

Says corruption is firmly rooted that no one is fit to throw the first stone

Dimapur, June 4 (EMN): The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) has lauded the state government for removing the check gates within Nagaland, however, it said the existing 13 interstate check posts also should be removed as the GST and VAT are in place.

In a press release, NPCC president K Therie lamented the prices of goods still not falling despite the closure of check gates, saying that more actions are required for this to happen.

He claimed that “internal gate extortions were only transferred to wholesalers and retailers” and the corrupt practices of “agencies, registered societies, unions, associations, and insurgents” are not helping ease inflation either.

He stated that ‘the Essential Commodities Act and (Standards of) Weights and Measures Act that control prices of commodities are no longer known to the people’ and illegal extortion is deeply rooted that ‘he state government has lost control of it for decades.

“Extortion and corruption are firmly rooted from top to bottom. No one is fit to throw the first stone,” said Therie, adding that words like ‘percentage, commission, cut, tax’ etc. have been normalised and practiced as conventional law.

He also accused civil organisations of abusing traders. “Societies do not practice defined welfare objectives to encourage, promote and preserve high standards amongst people rather, hundreds of societies, unions and associations are taking law and order into their own hands by undertaking enforcement upon soft targets from amongst the traders,” he wrote.

Therie stated that ‘law and order has collapsed in Nagaland’ and executive machineries go by the words of legislators, not the book of law. He also said that the State Legislative Assembly has not enacted any new law for a long time to deal with an evolving society and the growth of economy.

He alleged that many village councils and GBs, who are expected to deal with law and order effectively with customary laws, “support unlawful activities while administration remains a mute spectator”. He added that it is the responsibility of the administration to enforce the law when customary law fails but the two agencies end up confronting and blaming each other instead.

The NPCC chief said that the civil societies and NGOs (leaders) make a hue and cry in local papers but end up seeking party tickets from those they criticised and people praise and pray for them. “This is the heights of hypocrisy of corruption,” he said.

“The Church well understands the predicament therefore the clean election campaign. Who does not want that? But do the demands of bribe rise from the political workers or should we call them dalal/brokers? Now voters want to take directly from candidates and so demand house to house visits defying the Church,” he added.

He also said the judiciary had “earned a huge trust deficit” through deliberate delay and weak judgments, saying that he was shocked to learn about people accused of attempting to assassinate Dr. SC Jamir were acquitted. “Criminals no longer fear to repeat crimes.”

He stated that in order to bring down the prices of goods, the attitude of government machineries, guardians of customary law, civil societies, unions and associations should be amended; and the Judiciary and Police work together the interests public security to life and properties.

He appealed ‘to the Administration, Police and Judiciary to work together to restore law and order and control price hike by forming independent pricing commission with taxes, weights and measures and other departments and agencies concerned, starting from Dimapur’.

He went on to say that people and entrepreneurs can be questioned by government agencies but registered societies are supposed to work towards improving the living standards of the people and not torture.