Rukutho Lcho
Nazarat Branch, Home Department Nagaland Civil Secretariat
In the first ever award of its kind in Nagaland, the well known and much talked about Nagaland Butchers Association has won the award for Best Customer Service by beating the likes of Town Buses Association, Taxi Association of Nagaland, Gas Service Union of Nagaland and All Naga-Miya Autorickshaw Union. The award is sponsored and presented by the Nagaland Chotu-Motu Business Union.
An online survey was conducted which saw enthusiastic response from the ‘aam bi Sema ashe’, ‘aami bi Angami ase’, ‘aami bi Konyak ase’, ‘amar bi Ao ase’, ‘Chakhesang, Lotha.... etc.- the aam admi of Nagaland. It was tough competition for the coveted title and due to the humongous response and hits, a website earlier earmarked for conducting the poll survey crashed. Therefore, the Awards Committee launched five new websites, viz., www.tiazü.com , www.kemeda.com , www.ejung.com , www.akimiki.com and www.akaungyotuda.com., each of which were taken in charge by some members of the committee consisting of Sentiben, Vivonu, Nzan, Pitovi and Hankiumong respectively.
President of the Awards Committee Neiu Jütahieluo thanked the people of Nagaland for sparing their time away from Facebook to vote. The President opined that the deciding factor which probably swung the votes in favour of Nagaland Butchers Association was their ever spontaneous and timely service in deciding what parts or how many kilos of meat the customers should buy. As they spare the customers of a headache and confusion by not letting them choose what they want, it becomes hassle free and time saving for both the customer and the butcher. Topping their efficiency, they give freebies and bonuses like hooves and bones which apparently are very nutritious and healthy due to low fat contents.
Talking about fats, the President also felt the ingenuity of the butchers should not go unnoticed. “With health issues like diabetes, stroke, heart attacks and obesity concerning all of us today, the butchers are doing a big favour to the people by exercising/walking their ‘cows for slaughter’ along the National Highway from Dimapur to Kohima before slaughtering them. This reduce their fat content significantly, benefiting the populace with good health.” Word of mouth is that, those who voted for the NBA are the much health conscious citizens of Kohima.
In his 'last few words’ as is the norm in Nagaland, the President had words of sympathy for the losing nominees. He said, “If the Town Buses Association would want to win next year, they should give back the changes of the passengers early, preferably within a week. For the Taxi Association, traffic jam is to be blamed for them losing out on the award. They have no avenues to overtake one another or rather private vehicles, for their passengers to reach their destination early. The All Naga – Miya Autorickshaw Union on the other hand lost out because a substantial proportion of their votes came from illegal immigrants, which is not valid.”
The President reserved his personal opinion for the Gas Service Union of Nagaland, “Due to ‘shortage of gas’ in the agencies, last week I bought gas in the black market which leaves black soot in the bottom of my utensils while cooking. The timing couldn’t have been worse. I hate touching water in the winter, but I have to clean the black soot everyday. Therefore, as President I vetoed your nomination.”
Note: This is just an imaginary write up.
Watershed development in shifting cultivation areas
A DIPR Feature by Temjenkaba
The Scheme of Watershed Development in Shifting Cultivation Areas (WDPSCA) was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of India in the seven North Eastern States. Watershed Development Project in Shifting Cultivation Areas (WDPSCA) is a Special Central Assistance to State Plan Programme for the benefit of Jhumia families who are living below poverty line. The schemes are implemented on watershed basis with a cost norm of Rs. 10,000/- per hectare on net treatable area. The financing of the scheme includes treatment of arable and non-arable land, drainage line, creation of water reservoir development of agriculture/horticulture/plantation crops! Forestry and land based household production system as a package of rehabilitation component. As a whole the focus is on natural resource management, economic enhancement, leading to poverty alleviation and eco-friendly living.
The main objectives are to protect and develop the hill slopes of jhum areas with different soil and water conservation measures on watershed basis and to reduce further land degradation process. It also encourages and develops jhum land for productive use to improve cultivation and suitable package of practices leading to settled cultivation jhum practices. It helps in improvement of socio-economic status of jhumia families through household/land based activities. It mitigates the ill effects of shifting cultivation by introducing appropriate land use and water management as per capability and improved technologies.
Physical and social criteria for eligibility of watershed
• A minimum of 25% of the watershed area is under Shifting Cultivation.
• 50% and above families are engaged in shifting cultivation as the only means of livelihood and are living below the poverty line.
• Willingness of jhumias to go for improvement of jhum land with alternative farming system leading to permanent agriculture practices.
• High level of seasonal migration of Resource Poor Families to urban areas.
• Good scope of integrated development and demonstrative effect as reflected in availability of common land/forest land, private fallow land, sufficient quantity of surplus runoff going outside the watershed area.
It may be mentioned that Watershed Development in Shifting Cultivation Areas (WDPSCA) being an innovative programme insists on capacity building at all management levels from the planning stage of the scheme itself. A major orientation in the tools and techniques of participatory approaches and capacity building programme are suggested as mandatory. Orientation of members of various management committees and institutional headstand training of state level trainers are drawn from various organisations.
Source: Planning Department, Nagaland
