Chizokho Vero
Kohima | November 28
The 15th Finance Commission chairman Nand Kishore Singh today said that the Commission is going back optimistic and enthused by initiatives of the Nagaland state government and by the current development metrics.
“It will be the endeavour of this 15th FC to encourage and fully support the innovative measures which are currently underway to accelerate the growth momentum of the Nagaland’s economy which can improve the per capita income more significantly and enable in harnessing its multiple competitive factors that Nagaland has,” Singh said while addressing a press conference here at the state capital.
He expressed hope that the slogan of the government “Peace for development and development for peace” does not remain a mere slogan but has to be translated into action. “We are exceedingly sympathetic to the needs, requirement and compulsions, the opportunities and challenges of Nagaland,” he asserted.
The Commission will have further consultations and see the totality of the demands in the lights of the supplementary before coming to conclusions and framing its recommendations for Nagaland, the chairman informed.
He said the Commission had full and rich discussion with all stakeholders in Nagaland which include village councils, VDBs, political parties, trade, industry and commerce etc. Formal memorandum, representations detailing their expectations and demands were also presented to the Commission.
Singh said the Commission was impressed by the great strides which Nagaland has made on several important critical parameters with special mention on human resource development, rate of literacy, infant and maternal mortality.
Great strides have been made in the Horticulture sector, which has great scope in terms of organic farming, fruits, vegetables and agriculture productivity, he observed.
Maintaining that Nagaland coffee tastes great, Singh encouraged the state to find better avenues like entering into memorandum with South Africa.
Fruits and other vegetables offer great opportunities for downstream development of those in terms of agro and agro based processing industries, Singh added.
He also said the Commission was greatly impressed by interactions with village council and VDBs and the state’s approach towards the communitisaiton of resources which is unique to Nagaland.
Recognizing that 75% area of Nagaland is under forest cover with quite a large percentage in the dense forest category while most are moderate and open forest, Singh said this contributes greatly towards reducing fossil fuel footprint, which he said, “is commendable and needs to be recognized.”
He said to harness the advantage that Nagaland has, three important trust areas needs encouragement – one is improve connectivity – air and road. Tourism offers a huge potential but for this requirement, good connectivity becomes essential, he said.
He also encouraged the state to think greatly of renewable energy, particularly solar energy. “Nagaland needs to take advantage not only on hydel potential but take advantage of the enormous amount of the land and sunshine.”
Singh informed that the state government had submitted memorandum to the commission basing on four proposals on what they view to be the post devolution revenue deficit grants –totaling to Rs 86,834 crore, in addition to the critical connectivity projects.
15th FC secretary Arvind Mehta said one of the main economic earners of the state is going to be the tourism activities.
