By Imkong Walling
Is there anything greater in Nagaland that stokes heated passion than job appointments, reservation quotas in the government establishment, and elections? There is the stalemated Indo-Naga political issue, but it rarely goads the lay folks to take to the streets, other than generating chatter on the digital medium.
There was leadership tumult in the GPRN/NSCN setup but it was seen through like a routine leadership bickering. Barring a few, there was little to no widespread public expression of concern.
A couple of days back, there was a bombshell announcement in the form of a seemingly disillusioned son of one half of the NSCN (IM)’s founders shifting loyalty, and joining the ranks of two senior dissenting generals, who fell out with the Naga Political Group’s top political leadership.
The development had only the security establishment and news agencies, especially the ones based outside of Nagaland, interested, while hardly creating a flutter in the broader social landscape in Nagaland.
These were apparently of no concern when the public attention was glued to an appointments controversy in the Department of Higher Education. The jobs of 147 ad hoc college teachers were regularised by the state government without following laid down appointment procedure.
The controversy rages on, and apparently so, because a secure livelihood as a government employee is dearer to a people that have learnt to mentally block out an unending political imbroglio.
To reiterate, allegedly none other pricks the Naga perception than jobs of the government kind that a recent announcement about a state-sponsored subsidy for harvesting solar energy hardly produced any excitement even as it came attached with ‘subsidy.’
While the perceived disinterest was not unexpected, it is also rare for the people here to ignore subsidised loans doled out by the government.
In an ideal scenario, and more so in a state with a history of energy starvation, the announcement should have had people queuing up, and maybe, even crashing the online portal with requests. But such an imagined scene has not played out.
The data released by the government would serve as a conservative measure for the perceived disinterest with only 247 applications received online, as on April 14, 2025.
The state government has also to blame for the lacklustre response. It has not taken any initiative to launch a dedicated promotional campaign for a six-year old programme other than a one-time public announcement.
The scheme— the Prime Minister Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana is a continuation of an earlier government programme, in implementation since 2019, for partially sponsoring residential rooftop solar plants, in a new and expanded avatar. The now subsumed scheme was known as the ‘Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Phase II Programme.
The project, if it gathers steam, would not only aid in easing the energy crisis of the state but also cut down carbon emissions.
Call it misplaced priority, but one cannot sustain economic growth without dependable electricity— a discovery that continues to power technological advancement ever since Michael Faraday.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
