'COVID-19 exposes broken system of governance in Nagaland'

31st May 2020

The state govt on the pretext of taking flexible approach to fight COVID-19 is repeatedly committing a series of serious blunders. Constant shifting of goalpost with regards to quarantine rules is borne more out of administrative convenience rather than medical advice.

The ineptness of political leadership is creating more confusion among the govt machinery or the ‘communication gap’ as admitted by the govt. This is jeopardizing the lives, especially of those health care workers and other frontline workers in addition to risking returnees and citizens.

The only welcome development is the renovation of Ganeshnagar Industrial Estate in the outskirts of Dimapur town for conversion into Institutional Quarantine Centre, as this sprawling 1000 acre estate was left almost abandoned for over 17 years.

We thank Chief Minister Mr Neiphiu Rio for finally remembering and paying visit to this industrial estate which he had conveniently ignored all these years in his quest for narrow centric development approach that has only benefited his coteries and cronies.

The past 17 plus years, majority of which has seen Mr Neiphiu Rio at the helm as Chief Minister is about commitments for all, but development only in his area of interest. As COVID-19 exposes the broken system of governance in Nagaland, it is also time for people of Nagaland to understand the dark underbelly of how successive DAN govt’s and now PDA govt have brought Nagaland to such a pathetic situation.

On the Tuensang returnees fiasco, the state govt setting up 3 member Judicial Enquiry Committee (JIC) should not end up like numerous Judicial Enquiry Committee or Commission that have never come out with logical conclusion.

Under DAN and PDA govt’s, the objective of any JIC enquiry seems to be more about shielding those in power rather than fix accountability or the guilty being punished. We only hope that we are proved wrong this time on the inability of JICs to unearth the truth and ensuring that justice prevails.

Issued by: Communication Dept,
NPCC (Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee )