Save money, lose weight!

Time to say goodbye to Road Shows for now
 
With another New Year it is only natural for people to attempt making some kind of resolution/s. And since the media is filled with reports about New Year pledges and resolutions, one that seems appropriate for us is this: Save money, lose weight! This was one of the resolutions which caught our attention. After all the merrymaking, plentiful of shopping, feasting and the wasteful expenditure on State sponsored pomp and celebration, it makes absolute sense for Nagaland and its people to give a serious thought to this New Year resolution—to curb our wasteful expenses, start saving and lose weight quite literally. There may be many skeptics who feel that making New Year resolutions is a pointless exercise—because we never succeed beyond say one or two months at the most. However, not to make resolution/s is also in a way letting go of opportunities to change for the better. The period of entering the New Year is in fact an opportune time to look for new innovations in our work places, mend ties to our broken relationships, reconcile our differences with our fellow Naga brothers and sisters etc. It is that time of year when we look ahead and ask ourselves what we can do better and what positive changes we can make. While we as individuals or families should work towards bringing in positive changes to our lives, similarly, our State government led by the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary can use this time of New Year and resolutions to actually reflect, evaluate, correct and move on in running the affairs of the State.
 
In fact the State government should resolve to cut down on lavish events and unnecessary wasteful spending. We can try and emulate the steps being taken in China to literally crack down on official partying besides effort to curb corruption. As per a news report carried in the Morung Express on December 30, 2010 issue, China’s ruling party met to address excessive spending on official functions as well as public money spent on cars for officials. Communist Party officials also released a paper on efforts to fight corruption in 2011.While bringing vast improvements in quality of life for most Chinese, economic growth has also brought massive corruption and a widening rich-poor gap. The situation in Nagaland is similar. Like the Chinese government we need to also make a resolve to correct the ills within the existing system. As someone who believes in the saying that “we should not try to live beyond our means”, the Chief Minister must do a rethink on some of his government’s policies and programmes. And to begin with, the Chief Minister should officially announce the end of the two year long State Road Show. Rio along with his senior advisors and the top bureaucrats should sit down and do a mid-course appraisal of the government priorities. For both the public as well as the State government, it is time to end the revelry and get back to work. If this is done, then we will indeed succeed in saving our money. We need to work more in the government sector, private enterprises or in our farms so that our productivity improves. We also need to collectively resolve the problems confronting our society so that the weight of our burden does not crush us. One may not agree with our resolution. However the point is this: We need to aim to be better next year.