The harsh realities that the people in the state of Nagaland is going through in the infrastructural sector especially the condition of roads has caught the attention of almost all the people in the state. This time round it was the youth of the biggest church body in Nagaland, the Nagaland Baptist Churches Council (NBCC), that brought the issue to the spotlight. The 22 Baptist youth associations affiliated to the NBCC had the come together for their annual session where it made a decision to make a strong appeal to the chief minister of the state for better road conditions. The annual session of the church youth body was coincidentally held in the district of the chief minister. The news of the appeal was also published by Eastern Mirror on October 1.
The increasing number of issues that the church in the state is taking up is noteworthy and sometimes may even seem a bit out of their brief. The church that is supposed to take care of the spiritual wellbeing of its members have suddenly started taking interest in the social and political aspects of the people. However it is quite relevant since the state has almost 90 percent Christian population and the church finally felt the need for the wellbeing of its followers just like it did about peace in the state and the prohibition. Further deliberations based on the doctrine of the religion may be required on how much the church can get involved. Apparently for now since it is a very pertinent issue the people might not be concerned about its other ramifications if any, instead they will welcome it that in turn should be a matter of big concern for our lawmakers.
It now seems that call from our politicians and their continued appeal made to the church to assist in cleaning up the election process have resulted in the church body not only agreeing to it but have also taken a step further. Since the clean election campaign assisted by the church will cut down the expenditure of candidates during elections, the church slowly will have every right to question on the developmental aspects.
It is understood that the funding pattern for road construction has to be changed for Nagaland as there is negligible funds for maintenance and repairs. The reason that the state's public works department and also the Border Roads Organisation gives many a times when questioned about the bad road conditions. The state, with negligible revenue also finds it impossible to repair roads. However if this does not change and the same scenario continues, the people may not be in a position to listen and understand it. The NBCC youth in their appeal mentioned that there is lack of equilibrium between the vehicles driven and the condition of the roads in the state. A very subtle accusation speculative of where funds meant for roads may have been diverted. Such thoughts sometimes becomes explosive over time and the government might find it difficult to handle, especially because this time it came from a church body.
As the popular government that now has become opposition-less and the ruling party of the state being an alliance partner in the central government it is a good time to make the central leaders listen to the plight of the state. In the rest of the country the popular slogan(electricity, water and roads) is considered to have been achieved in almost all the states. How does Nagaland fare is a question our lawmakers seriously need to ponder. The buck will surely stop at one point.
