EMN
Dimapur, August 11
With a friendly government at the Centre in which DAN-III is a partner, the State unit of BJP is confident that the NDA government will be sympathetic to the plight of the people of Nagaland, and as a committed partner is hopeful that very soon the State will receive generous fund from the Centre. State unit president of the party Dr. M Chuba Ao, in a release today, claimed that as the pre-poll alliance partner of the DAN-III government, BJP is doing everything under its power to ensure that the State’s finance position is stabilized soon.
“The larger interest of the people is supreme and BJP takes the issue above petty party politics,” he stated.
Expressing concern over the current precarious financial situation of the State, Chuba cautioned that the NDA government’s generous funding will come about only when it is convinced that the development funds are judiciously utilized for the purpose of developing the State. He asserted that the BJP will ensure that funds given by the NDA government for development purposes do not disappear before reaching the beneficiaries at the grassroots level.
Stating that release of pending installments for ongoing projects are entirely subject to judicious utilization of the installments received already, the State BJP has urged the DAN-III government to discharge its duty in timely submission of utilization certificates for those installments due so that development activities are not stalled. “Unlike the corrupt UPA government, the NDA government had made it very clear that it will not tolerate corruption at the cost of the common people,” it said.
In this connection, the State BJP has also appealed to the people of Nagaland to be vigilant and work as government’s watchdogs on utilization of development funds. Maintaining that misappropriation of public funds takes place in unresponsive society, the party stressed that the people of Nagaland should shed all misgivings about the NDA government and instead take advantage of the special concern it has for the State.
Observing that as a pre-poll alliance the spirit of trust and confidence is vital among the partners with friendly NDA at the Centre, the state unit of the party hoped that DAN-III too maintains cordial relationship with its allies in the State.
The party also attributed the present financial crisis to the changed funding pattern since 1989 till when the State had enjoyed the status of being one of the special category states in funding pattern. It said the crisis is not something out of the blue but cumulative in nature.
Alleging that the Congress government in Nagaland during that time had failed to protect the State, the State BJP said since then Nagaland ceased to continue as the Special Category State in so far as funding pattern was concerned.
Also, alleging that the UPA government in its decades-old rule had meted out step-motherly treatment in fund allocations to the State, the party said the adverse 13th Finance Commission award during UPA regime was a glaring example of utter neglect. “Other than the normal allocations in State plan and centrally sponsored schemes (CSS), UPA government had done little or nothing in being serious to help the State government tide over the huge balance of current revenue (BCR) gap,” it said.
“The adverse TFC award had affected the entire population in Nagaland alike and not necessarily the non-Congress government only,” the party said adding that despite having differences in principle, the DAN-II government had extended unconditional outside support to the UPA-II government for the interest of the State. But the UPA-II government took the support for granted and conveniently ignored the State’s genuine needs, it alleged.
“DAN-III government being part of NDA family, the question of neglect does not arise only if we are honest to ourselves,” the State BJP added.
