Cong. youths launch Clean Election campaign

‘Public equally responsible for corruption in Nagaland’

Kohima, Nov. 26 (EMN): Youths of the Congress party have launched a Clean Election campaign noting what they stated was the magnitude of corruption, mismanagement and malpractice in the Nagaland government.

The Nagaland Pradesh Youth Congress (NPYC) launched the campaign “Clean Election: Youth for change and save Nagaland” (sic) at the Congress Bhawan in Kohima town on Saturday evening.

The president of the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC), K Therie, addressed the Congress youth members. He said that majority of voters in the state are in the age group of 18-40 years. The youths can speak up and be a strong force for ‘clean’ elections to bring changes, he said. They can be the change by avoiding proxy-voting and electoral malpractices, he said. Then, he said, Nagaland will see a ‘new ray of hope’ for better governance and development.

The politician highlighted corruption in the state’s government. Therie said that the present government was a ‘party-less government,’ functioning without political objectives or vision for the people; it is ‘just to loot the state exchequer for personal gain and not for development.’

The vision 2030 document of the state government is a ‘flip flop document because nothing has been implemented by the state government so far,’ the NPCC president said.

Therie remarked that if the current trend of corruption continues in the same government for the next five years, he has ‘decided to retire from his political career.’ The Congress president said that there were around 1, 50, 000 unemployed youths including 80,000 educated youths in the state. He accused the Nagaland government of lacking a human resource policy to address the issue of youth unemployment. The central government has a policy to employ at least 10,000 youths per day across the country but the state government’s policy for creating employment opportunities is ‘zero percent,’ the Congress president lamented.

Supporting the campaign for ‘clean’ elections initiated by the Nagaland Baptist Church Council, the NPCC president said that there were more than 1800 churches in Nagaland including those from other denominations. He said ‘everybody will not change but if 15 to 20% follow clean elections, then there will be a difference and will bring changes in the future.’

Vilhousielie Kengurusie, president of the NPYC, delivered the keynote address at the programme. He said that the achievement of the present state government can be filled ‘in a single page’ if it were to be noted down. However, he said, the failures of the government will not be enough for ‘even thousand pages.’

The Congress leader nonetheless held the public equally responsible for ‘demanding money’ during elections. In this regard, he said, the public cannot go against the government then.

The Congress leader urged the youths, particularly the educated, to strive for clean elections and be a good influence on the rest of the society. Corruption in the state is at its highest, he said. Protests and agitations by many sections of the state’s community are due to corruption, he said. He has urged the youths in general to be ‘wiser’ in selecting political leaders.

Members of the party’s youth units and All Nagaland College Students’ Union attended the programme.