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Nagaland House: Built for VIP’s or Common Man?
Rhanlamo Lapon:The Misuse of power by some corrupted Nagaland Ministers MLAs (Agony Never to be forgotten). On the 7th Jan early morning at 6am I and my wife reached Howrah railway station from Dimapur so due to unavailability of ticket to Bangalore, we took a taxi and proceeded to Nagaland House Shakespeare Sarani after reaching there I saw many people waiting for the receptionist to arrive but when inquired it seems he will be coming only at 8:30AM and I got frustrated since I badly needed a cabin because of my accident in head, backbone fractured & back burn injuries and also my wife was not feeling well too but still we waited and at last the receptionist came Name Bhattacharya (I don’t know his full Name)so I was the first person to ask whether there is a cabin/room for a night but he replied in negative saying that there is a women conference to be held so all the rooms have been booked but still I requested that I cannot bear the pain and need rest I even told him if he don’t believe me I can show him my hospital result which shows that it’s a serious accident but he was hesitant to hear to my agony so I told him that even if you ask the women leaders about my problem I am hopeful that they too might spare me a room for a night but still no positive reply, so I step aside and was thinking what to do, then next one girl came with an MLA chit/letter for 4 Rooms and at first the receptionist denied them and after a while he told them he can allot them two Rooms since they have the MLA chit and when I inquired to one of the group the reason they came to Kolkata is for shopping woooo not bad I thought and then I realized that it’s of no use arguing and wasting time and after that I asked for a dormitory even that at first he said it’s full but when I went up there was only one person and all the remaining beds were empty, and I asked for mattress even that I have to wait for an hour that was a very bad experienced.
Rhanlamo Lapon:The Misuse of power by some corrupted Nagaland Ministers MLAs (Agony Never to be forgotten). On the 7th Jan early morning at 6am I and my wife reached Howrah railway station from Dimapur so due to unavailability of ticket to Bangalore, we took a taxi and proceeded to Nagaland House Shakespeare Sarani after reaching there I saw many people waiting for the receptionist to arrive but when inquired it seems he will be coming only at 8:30AM and I got frustrated since I badly needed a cabin because of my accident in head, backbone fractured & back burn injuries and also my wife was not feeling well too but still we waited and at last the receptionist came Name Bhattacharya (I don’t know his full Name)so I was the first person to ask whether there is a cabin/room for a night but he replied in negative saying that there is a women conference to be held so all the rooms have been booked but still I requested that I cannot bear the pain and need rest I even told him if he don’t believe me I can show him my hospital result which shows that it’s a serious accident but he was hesitant to hear to my agony so I told him that even if you ask the women leaders about my problem I am hopeful that they too might spare me a room for a night but still no positive reply, so I step aside and was thinking what to do, then next one girl came with an MLA chit/letter for 4 Rooms and at first the receptionist denied them and after a while he told them he can allot them two Rooms since they have the MLA chit and when I inquired to one of the group the reason they came to Kolkata is for shopping woooo not bad I thought and then I realized that it’s of no use arguing and wasting time and after that I asked for a dormitory even that at first he said it’s full but when I went up there was only one person and all the remaining beds were empty, and I asked for mattress even that I have to wait for an hour that was a very bad experienced.
Here are the incidents which I would like to note down
1) There were three Naga student’s two guys and a girl waiting from morning and even they faced the same problem like me so they left saying that this Nagaland house is only for Ministers and VIPs, truly said and they were even denied dormitory when it was empty(reason being some employees said most of the rooms are empty).
2) After an hour or so I again went down and asked for the letter to show me who the MLA is but it was nowhere to be seen except some other letters, already hidden but I saw that the MLA Title but it’s no use to mention his name as all the ministers and MLA’s are same.
3) why did I opted for a room at Nagaland House because it’s much safer and nearer to the railway station and less painful for my injury and also I have to book the ticket from there itself, and for dormitory there is a restriction of girls and boys visiting each other inside the dormitory and for me I needed a dressing for my wounds which can be done only by my wife as it’s risky and difficult for others.
4)If boys are not allowed to entered in girls dormitory then why did the house keeper keep on entering the girls dormitory every now and then when my wife was alone, why can’t they keep separate housekeeping persons for boys and girls.
5) At 9:00Am I saw a young lady and her friend taking a car with red beacon for shopping, I think it’s illegal to use govt. official car by their children that too with a red beacon light!
6) At Around 7Pm three guys from Manipur were allotted beds in the dormitory where as our Naga’s brother from Nagaland were denied beds saying it’s already full. (My apology to our brothers from Manipur for mentioning your stay but it’s a compulsion to write down so as to let the readers understand how our NH functions)
7) If at all I have to book rooms at Nagaland house why I do always received the reply that the guest house is full for a period of 12yrs just imagines. I have never ever slept in Nagaland house in my 12yrs of travelling.
Lastly If I don’t understand why most of the employees are given free Rooms in the other building, why not they can come from outside to come for work other than the required night duty workers?
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Hooligans tainting Naga Society
Athsole Mero Olson: Today my husband and I truly experienced the degeneration of naga society. We are visiting our family in Nagaland and was returning from Pfutsero on a Tata mobile which my husband was driving and I was the passenger. We were overtaken by an auto rickshaw which cut and stopped right in front of us on a busy National highway in Dimapur near Diphupar by two naga men. The traffic came to a stop and when it continued the auto rickshaw never moved. We honked and the driver jumped out and gestured toward my husband. When my husband got out to see why they stopped, the driver pushed him and my husband pushed back. I saw the passenger jump out from the other side and move towards my husband. They were clearly not intimidated by my husband who is 6ft 3 and weighs 240lbs as they both began to assault my husband. I got out of the vehicle and grabbed the passenger who I dragged away from my husband. The passenger turned and punched me on my jaw and kicked at me which I blocked. My husband had the other guy pinned down to the ground. Luckily there were cops patrolling and they came and stopped it before it escalated further! As this was happening the crowd had gathered and it was interesting to see how a certain group tried to work their intimidation tactic in the crowd supporting the two guys when they assumed my husband to be a mainlander until they heard his accent. I insisted on the cops arresting the men and they would not do it. They asked us to go to the police station and I insisted that they take the guys so we could have them booked. The Duty Officer of Diphupar Police Station reported the two men's version of incident (we had supposedly hit their vehicle and ran, though there were no signs of damage on both vehicles), no inspection was done nor our statement taken before the report to the SP. At the police station they insisted that my husband attacked them until the Diphupar Chakhesang Youth President went to the scene and got testimonies from witnesses who corroborated our version of the story. Luckily truth always prevail. The bad guys are in jail for the night and we will decide whether we should pursue it further. Thank you to all the people who came to the scene and followed us to the police station to assist and support, especially to my family members friends who turned up. What is appalling is this whole attitude of the Nagas to let go of things through discussion instead of pursuing j ustice, which has become the bane of Naga Society. Clearly they were not your average person. They knew what they were doing and what their intent was.
Athsole Mero Olson: Today my husband and I truly experienced the degeneration of naga society. We are visiting our family in Nagaland and was returning from Pfutsero on a Tata mobile which my husband was driving and I was the passenger. We were overtaken by an auto rickshaw which cut and stopped right in front of us on a busy National highway in Dimapur near Diphupar by two naga men. The traffic came to a stop and when it continued the auto rickshaw never moved. We honked and the driver jumped out and gestured toward my husband. When my husband got out to see why they stopped, the driver pushed him and my husband pushed back. I saw the passenger jump out from the other side and move towards my husband. They were clearly not intimidated by my husband who is 6ft 3 and weighs 240lbs as they both began to assault my husband. I got out of the vehicle and grabbed the passenger who I dragged away from my husband. The passenger turned and punched me on my jaw and kicked at me which I blocked. My husband had the other guy pinned down to the ground. Luckily there were cops patrolling and they came and stopped it before it escalated further! As this was happening the crowd had gathered and it was interesting to see how a certain group tried to work their intimidation tactic in the crowd supporting the two guys when they assumed my husband to be a mainlander until they heard his accent. I insisted on the cops arresting the men and they would not do it. They asked us to go to the police station and I insisted that they take the guys so we could have them booked. The Duty Officer of Diphupar Police Station reported the two men's version of incident (we had supposedly hit their vehicle and ran, though there were no signs of damage on both vehicles), no inspection was done nor our statement taken before the report to the SP. At the police station they insisted that my husband attacked them until the Diphupar Chakhesang Youth President went to the scene and got testimonies from witnesses who corroborated our version of the story. Luckily truth always prevail. The bad guys are in jail for the night and we will decide whether we should pursue it further. Thank you to all the people who came to the scene and followed us to the police station to assist and support, especially to my family members friends who turned up. What is appalling is this whole attitude of the Nagas to let go of things through discussion instead of pursuing j ustice, which has become the bane of Naga Society. Clearly they were not your average person. They knew what they were doing and what their intent was.
(The Naga Blog was created in 2008 by Yanpvuo Kikon. This column in
The Morung Express will be a weekly feature every Saturday)
